How to Get Dofollow Backlinks for a New SaaS in 2026
A practical guide to building high-quality dofollow backlinks for a new SaaS website. Covers the best free and low-cost sources, what domain rating actually means, and a realistic 90-day backlink plan.
When you launch a new SaaS, your domain authority is zero.
That means Google doesn't trust your site. Your pages don't rank. Even if your product solves a real problem and your content is excellent, you're invisible to anyone searching for what you do.
Dofollow backlinks from authoritative domains are the fastest legitimate way to fix this. One dofollow link from a DR 70 domain tells Google: "A site we already trust vouches for this one." That signal compounds over time.
This guide covers the best sources of free dofollow backlinks specifically for SaaS products in 2026, how to prioritize them, and a realistic 90-day plan to build a backlink profile that actually moves the needle.
Table of Contents
- Dofollow vs. nofollow: what actually matters
- What domain rating means for a new SaaS
- The best free dofollow backlink sources for SaaS in 2026
- Backlinks to avoid
- A 90-day backlink plan for new domains
Dofollow vs. Nofollow: What Actually Matters
A dofollow link passes "link equity" - what SEOs call PageRank - from the linking domain to yours. When Google crawls a dofollow link from a high-authority site pointing to yours, it transfers some of that site's authority to you. This is what moves your domain rating up and helps your pages rank.
A nofollow link tells Google's crawler not to follow the link and not to pass equity. It still drives traffic, and it still makes your link profile look natural - a backlink profile with only dofollow links looks suspicious. But nofollow links don't directly improve your domain authority.
For a new SaaS domain, your priority in the first 3-6 months should be accumulating as many dofollow links from DR 40+ domains as possible. The diversity and authority of your dofollow backlink profile has a larger impact on your ranking potential than almost anything else you can do early on.
What Domain Rating Means for a New SaaS
Domain Rating (DR) is Ahrefs' metric for how strong a website's backlink profile is, on a scale of 0-100. It's logarithmic - going from DR 0 to DR 30 is much easier than going from DR 50 to DR 60.
For practical purposes:
| DR Range | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| DR 70-100 | Highest-authority links - meaningful SEO impact even with just 1-2 of these |
| DR 50-70 | Strong links - accumulate 5-15 of these and you'll see real domain movement |
| DR 30-50 | Decent foundation links - good for diversity, less individual impact |
| DR 0-30 | Minimal direct SEO value; only valuable at very high volume |
A new SaaS domain getting links from 3-5 domains in the DR 50-70 range will typically see measurable improvement in its Ahrefs DR within 60-90 days. Getting a single link from a DR 90+ domain (like Product Hunt or Hacker News) can accelerate this significantly - but HN links are nofollow, so the SEO benefit is primarily from associated traffic, not direct link equity.
The Best Free Dofollow Backlink Sources for SaaS in 2026
These are platforms that provide dofollow links and are either free to use or have a free tier that includes a link.
1. Startups Lab - DR 58, Free (Top 3 Win a Backlink)
Startups Lab is a weekly launch platform for SaaS founders and indie hackers. What makes it unusual: the top 3 most-upvoted products each week automatically receive a free dofollow backlink from the platform. No subscription required - just genuine community upvotes.
For paid plans (starting at $26/month), the dofollow backlink is included immediately, along with a newsletter mention to 1,500+ founders and a social media amplification tweet.
For a new SaaS domain building its first backlink profile, a DR 58 dofollow link is a meaningful asset - especially combined with the founder community traffic.
Submit your product to Startups Lab →
2. BetaList - DR 73, Free
BetaList is a pre-launch discovery platform that provides a dofollow link from DR 73 - one of the best free backlinks available for early-stage products. The free tier involves a waiting period (several weeks), or you can pay for expedited listing.
The audience is specifically early adopters looking for new products to test, which means the traffic quality is high on top of the link quality.
Best for: Pre-launch or recently launched products. Submit early - the waiting period means you want to be in the queue before you're ready to launch.
3. SaaSHub - DR 73, Free
SaaSHub is a SaaS comparison and alternatives directory with 400K monthly visitors. Every listing gets a dofollow backlink from DR 73. The traffic benefit isn't immediate - SaaSHub drives visitors searching for alternatives to tools your product competes with, which builds up over months as your listing gains reviews and visibility.
The SEO benefit is immediate, though. A dofollow from DR 73 on a SaaS-specific domain is highly relevant to your backlink profile.
Best for: Any SaaS with 1-2 established competitors. Include your product in the relevant alternatives sections.
4. Peerlist - DR 66, Free
Peerlist is a professional network for developers and builders. Creating a profile and listing your product earns a dofollow backlink from DR 66. The audience is technical founders, making it a strong fit for developer tools and B2B SaaS targeting technical buyers.
Best for: Developer tools, API products, SaaS for technical teams.
5. Fazier - DR 66, Free
Fazier is a smaller weekly launch platform with a low-friction submission process. The main draw for SEO purposes: it provides a dofollow backlink from DR 66, takes under 10 minutes to submit, and has lower competition than larger platforms.
The traffic numbers are modest, but at DR 66 the link punches well above the platform's size.
Best for: Any product looking for a quick dofollow win. Submit here on launch week as part of your directory stack.
6. Uneed - DR 61, Free (Paid Priority Available)
Uneed is a curated daily directory for SaaS tools. Products are reviewed before listing, which keeps the directory quality high and the audience engaged. Every listing includes a dofollow backlink from DR 61, and the curation means your product gets seen by people who actually wanted to discover new tools.
Best for: Any SaaS or indie product. The curation filter actually helps conversion because you're seen by a motivated discovery audience.
7. Product Hunt - DR 90+, Free (Competitive)
Product Hunt is the highest-authority launch platform, but the link is dofollow only if your product earns a dedicated page ranking (not just appearing in the daily feed). The DR 90+ backlink is exceptionally valuable - it's among the best links a startup can get from a single submission.
The catch is competition: getting a page that ranks and generates a meaningful dofollow requires a strong launch day performance, which requires a pre-built audience.
Best for: Products with 100+ engaged supporters ready to upvote on launch day.
8. G2, Capterra, and GetApp - DR 80+, Free
For B2B SaaS, the review platforms are among the best sources of high-DR dofollow backlinks you can get for free. G2 (DR 90), Capterra (DR 90), and GetApp (DR 80) all provide dofollow links from product listing pages.
The listings take 30-60 minutes to set up, and you'll need at least 5-10 reviews to get meaningful search visibility on these platforms. But the combination of high-DR backlinks and high-intent traffic from buyers actively researching tools makes these essential for B2B SaaS.
Best for: B2B SaaS with at least 5 existing customers who can leave reviews.
Backlinks to Avoid
Not all backlinks help. Some actively hurt. In 2026, Google's spam filters are sophisticated enough to penalize link profiles that look unnatural.
Avoid:
- Paid link networks and PBNs (Private Blog Networks) - Google has become very good at identifying these, and a penalty can take months to recover from
- Mass-submission to generic web directories - submitting to 200 low-quality directories in a single week looks manipulative
- Forum link spam - posting your link in unrelated forums just to get a backlink
- "Guest post" sites that are clearly just link farms - if the site has no real audience, the link has no real value
The safest, most sustainable link building strategy is to get listed on platforms where your product genuinely belongs, in front of audiences who would actually use it.
A 90-Day Backlink Plan for New Domains
This is a realistic plan that a solo founder can execute while also building the product.
Days 1-7: The Foundation Stack
Submit to all the free dofollow directories immediately. The order matters because some have waiting periods:
- BetaList - submit first; free tier has a long queue, so start early
- Startups Lab - weekly launches, submit on Monday for immediate placement
- SaaSHub - 30 minutes to set up, permanent DR 73 link
- Peerlist - create your profile and list your product
- Fazier - 10-minute submission for a DR 66 link
- Uneed - submit for curation review
By end of week 1, you should have submissions in the pipeline for 5-6 dofollow links ranging from DR 58 to DR 73.
Days 8-30: Community and Content
- Post your launch story on Indie Hackers (nofollow, but drives founder traffic and social proof)
- Write one educational long-form blog post on a topic your ICP searches for; this becomes an asset for future link acquisition
- Post on Reddit in 2-3 relevant subreddits; drive traffic to your site even if the links are nofollow
Days 31-60: Backlinks Starting to Land
By this point, several of your directory listings should be live. Check your Ahrefs or Semrush profile - you should see the first links appearing.
Now add:
- G2 and Capterra (if you have B2B customers) - set up profiles and start requesting reviews
- There's An AI For That (if applicable) - DR 72, 4.3M monthly visits
- Product Hunt prep - start building your launch audience for a Product Hunt submission at the 90-day mark
Days 61-90: Compound and Prepare for PH
By day 90, with a clean directory stack live, you should have accumulated 8-12 dofollow backlinks from DR 45-90 domains. Your domain's Ahrefs DR will have moved noticeably.
At this point, the combination of domain authority, social proof from community listings, and the audience you've built from Startups Lab and Indie Hackers makes you ready for a Product Hunt launch that has a realistic chance of hitting the top 5.
The Underlying Principle
Backlink building for SaaS in 2026 is not about volume - it's about relevance and authority. A handful of links from platforms your target users actually trust and visit are worth more than hundreds of links from generic directories.
The platforms listed here aren't just SEO assets. They're where your customers discover products. When you get a dofollow from BetaList or Startups Lab or SaaSHub, you're not just building domain authority - you're being seen by the right people in the right context.
Start with the free foundation stack. Launch on Startups Lab this week. Build the habit of submitting to quality directories as part of every launch. Six months from now, you'll have a backlink profile that's genuinely hard to replicate.