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

Visit

Free for a text link on your homepage and 72 hours, or $5 for none of that and a featured badge

hotools.com
HoTools homepage
Eligibility

Who HoTools accepts

You need
A live URL
A Google account
A square icon
A 16:9 image
A text link to hotools.com on your homepage, for the free lane
You'll be rejected if
Nothing published about who is refused.
Online toolsSaaS toolsAI toolsDeveloper toolsWeb apps
What you actually get
A tool page in an online tools directory that dates back to 2003 as a domain and runs on a modern stack now, with the followed links the plan promises. The free lane is reviewed within 72 hours after the text link verifies.

How to submit to HoTools

  1. Sign in
    /submit redirects to /auth/login: email and password, or Login with Google.
  2. Choose a plan
    Free ($0, backlink required) or Pro ($5). Continue with Free opens /submit/form?plan=free.
  3. Details
    Link (with AI Autofill), name, categories and tags from searchable multi-selects, a short description, a Markdown introduction, a 1:1 icon and a 16:9 image.
  4. Verify and submit
    The Backlink Required panel shows the text link; put it on your homepage, press Verify Backlink, then Submit. Payment and Publish are the next two steps of the stepper; the free lane skips the payment.

HoTools requirements

Website URL
Name
Categories
from a list of 19
Tags
from a list of 24
Short description
Introduction
Markdown
Icon
1:1, PNG or JPEG, under 2MB
Image
16:9, PNG or JPEG, under 2MB
Text link to hotools.com
on your homepage, free lane

Gotchas

The free lane wants a plain text link, not a badge: the snippet is an anchor reading HoTools with a title attribute, and it has to be on the homepage itself, then verified before the Submit button does anything.
Both images are required on the free lane, the icon square and the image 16:9, each under 2MB, and there is no scrape fallback for either.
The stepper reads Details, Payment, Publish for every plan, so the free lane still shows a payment step it walks past.

Let your agent submit to HoTools

Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the HoTools 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 HoTools 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.
Warns you that HoTools looks for its badge on your site, so it has to be live before you submit rather than after.
Tells you what paying buys here, so you pick it on purpose: free: three followed links, a permanent listing, reviewed and listed within 72 hours, a text link to hotools.com required on your homepage and verified before the form submits, no featured placement, basic support. Pro is $5 one time: instant listing, no backlink, featured placement with a badge icon, priority review within 24 hours, shared on social and the newsletter, premium support.
Types it into HoTools 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 HoTools?".
Connect your agentHow this worksTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.

HoTools FAQ

How long does HoTools approval take?
HoTools's typical time from submission to going live is 3-5 days.
How much does it cost to submit to HoTools?
HoTools has a free submission option plus paid placement (Free: three followed links, a permanent listing, reviewed and listed within 72 hours, a text link to hotools.com required on your homepage and verified before the form submits, no featured placement, basic support. Pro is $5 one time: instant listing, no backlink, featured placement with a badge icon, priority review within 24 hours, shared on social and the newsletter, premium support.).
Does HoTools give a dofollow backlink?
Yes, a listing on HoTools carries a dofollow link. The site has a domain rating of 31.
Does HoTools require a backlink to your site?
Yes, HoTools expects a link back from your site as part of listing.
What gets you rejected from HoTools?
Nothing published about who is refused.