community · indie · saas

BuiltByIndies: requirements, how to submit, and what you actually get

Visit

Weekly launch board where the free queue costs ten karma of upvoting, and $9 buys the week you want

builtbyindies.com
BuiltByIndies homepage
Eligibility

Who BuiltByIndies accepts

You need
A live URL
A Google account or an email account
A 500x500 logo
Three cover images
Ten karma, for the free lane
You'll be rejected if
Nothing published about who is refused.
Indie productsSaaS toolsStartupsWeb appsDeveloper tools
What you actually get
A product page with a countdown to your launch week, a Visit link that carried rel="noopener noreferrer" and no nofollow on the pages read, votes during the week and a place on the weekly leaderboard. The free queue on this walk was full for the next four weeks and the first open week was five weeks out.

How to submit to BuiltByIndies

  1. Sign in
    Continue with Google (in a popup) or email and password, behind a Cloudflare check that passes on its own.
  2. The form
    Name (45), URL, tagline (60), up to three categories, a pricing model, optional collaborators and an open source box, Built with from a list, a rich text description up to 5,000 characters, a 500x500 logo and three to four 1200x630 covers, an optional demo video. A completion meter on the right has to read 100% before Submit Product is enabled.
  3. Choose your launch strategy
    Submit Product creates the product and opens /upgrade: Free Launch (10 karma) or Premium Launch ($9). Earn Karma leads to the Karma Center.
  4. Join Queue
    With ten karma the free card reads Join Queue, and a Select Launch Week dialog lists the weeks with open spots. Confirm Launch Date schedules the product and spends the karma.

BuiltByIndies requirements

Product name
45 characters
Product URL
Tagline
60 characters
Categories
up to 3
Built with
up to 10, from their list
Description
up to 5,000 characters
Logo
500x500, under 15MB
Cover images
3 to 4, 1200x630, under 15MB each
Karma
10, free lane

Gotchas

The free lane is paid in karma: ten points, which on this walk took a completed profile, one upvote and six more upvotes in the week, each claimed by hand on the Karma Center, and the launch spends the ten.
The free queue fills weeks ahead: the next four weeks were full and the first open slot was five weeks out, so a free launch here is a date, not a review.
The plan card says the free lane's links are nofollow, with dofollow only for the week's top three, while the Visit links on the product pages read carried no nofollow; which one you get is not stated anywhere you can check before launch.
Submit Product does not submit: it creates the product and sends you to the plan page, so a form left there is a product with no launch.

Let your agent submit to BuiltByIndies

Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the BuiltByIndies playbook and gets the brief for this exact form, with the values already taken from your submission pack instead of placeholders you fill in by hand.

What it does for this platform
Checks your product against the 6 BuiltByIndies rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 9 fields this form asks for, none of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Tells you what paying buys here, so you pick it on purpose: free Launch needs 10 karma and joins a community queue for the next week with open spots; the plan card calls its links nofollow with dofollow for the week's top three. Premium Launch is $9 one time: pick the week, instant publish, a premium badge, followed links, 30 days of homepage sponsorship and priority support. Karma comes from a completed profile (5), a first upvote (2), six upvotes a week (5), ten and twenty-five upvotes (5 and 10), a first Buildlog post (5), a first story (5) and a first job post.
Types it into BuiltByIndies in your own browser, and stops for you when the form wants a sign-in.
Records what it sent, so the dashboard can answer "did I ever submit to BuiltByIndies?".
Connect your agentHow this worksTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.

BuiltByIndies FAQ

How long does BuiltByIndies approval take?
BuiltByIndies's typical time from submission to going live is 3-6 months.
How much does it cost to submit to BuiltByIndies?
BuiltByIndies has a free submission option plus paid placement (Free Launch needs 10 karma and joins a community queue for the next week with open spots; the plan card calls its links nofollow with dofollow for the week's top three. Premium Launch is $9 one time: pick the week, instant publish, a premium badge, followed links, 30 days of homepage sponsorship and priority support. Karma comes from a completed profile (5), a first upvote (2), six upvotes a week (5), ten and twenty-five upvotes (5 and 10), a first Buildlog post (5), a first story (5) and a first job post.).
Does BuiltByIndies give a dofollow backlink?
Yes, a listing on BuiltByIndies carries a dofollow link. The site has a domain rating of 32.
Does BuiltByIndies require a backlink to your site?
No, BuiltByIndies does not require a link back from your site.
What gets you rejected from BuiltByIndies?
Nothing published about who is refused.