A small AI directory with a genuinely working free tier: dofollow, reviewed in 72 hours, paid for with a text link in your footer.
toolnav.ai
Eligibility
Who toolnav accepts
You need
An account (email and password, Google or GitHub)
A live product URL
A text link to Toolnav on your homepage, for the free tier
A square PNG or JPEG under 1MB
You'll be rejected if
Products with no live URL
AI toolsSaaS productsProductivity apps
What you actually get
A permanent dofollow listing with at least three links back to you, including one from their homepage, reviewed within 72 hours. The free tier costs you a text link in your footer and eventually drops off their homepage.
How to submit to toolnav
1
Register at the right URL
Only /auth/register works. /auth/signup, /signup and /register all bounce silently to the login page, which makes it look like registration does not exist. Email and password sit next to Google and GitHub.
2
Pick the free plan
The /submit page is a pricing gate with two "Go Submit" buttons. The first is Free ($0), the second is Pro ($9.9). Only after choosing does the real form open at /submit-tools.
3
Fill the details step
Link, name, categories, tags, a description and a markdown introduction in a SimpleMDE editor, plus an image under 1MB. The image field is labelled only "Image" but the card that renders it is landscape, so send a wide image rather than a square logo.
4
Submit and wait
Submitting creates the listing as Pending on the Free plan and moves you to a step titled Payment, which for the free tier is just the upsell page. Choose "Go dashboard and Wait".
5
Put their link up
Their FAQ gives the exact anchor: <a href='https://www.toolnav.ai' title='Toolnav'>Toolnav</a>. The free listing depends on it.
toolnav requirements
An account via /auth/register
Live product URL
A landscape PNG or JPEG under 1MB (their card is roughly 16:9, not square)
Description and a markdown introduction
A Toolnav text link on your homepage
At least one category and tag
Gotchas
The submit page is a pricing gate with two identical "Go Submit" buttons. The left one is Free and the right one is the $9.9 Pro plan; there is no label on the button itself, so check which card it sits under.
Step 2 is called "Payment" even on the free tier and shows the paid plans again. It is only an upsell: the listing is already created and Pending by then, and the free route out is "Go dashboard and Wait".
The Publish button on the dashboard does not publish a free listing. It sends you back to the pricing page, so the only way to actually publish sooner is to pay.
The tag vocabulary is entirely "AI <something>", with no marketing, SEO, launch or directory tags, and the search does a loose fuzzy match that returns unrelated results. Searching "seo" returns image generators.
The free listing is removed from their homepage after a while and carries no customer support, so treat the homepage link as temporary and the deep link as the permanent one.
The upload is labelled only "Image", but the listing card renders it wide, so a square logo comes out cropped into a blob. Send a landscape image (an OG/social card works) and keep it under their 1MB cap.
Let your agent submit to toolnav
Connect SubmitMap to your AI over MCP and this page stops being something you read and copy. Your agent asks for the toolnav 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 5 toolnav rules above, so you find out you would be rejected before you open a tab.
Hands your agent all 6 fields this form asks for, none of them optional, already filled from your pack.
Warns you that toolnav 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: $9.9 Pro skips the review, the badge and the queue.
Types it into toolnav 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 toolnav?".
Connect your agentTools and endpointsWorks with Claude Code, Claude, Codex, Cursor, VS Code and Hermes.
toolnav FAQ
How long does toolnav approval take?
toolnav's typical time from submission to going live is within 72 hours.
How much does it cost to submit to toolnav?
toolnav has a free submission option plus paid placement ($9.9 Pro skips the review, the badge and the queue).
Does toolnav give a dofollow backlink?
Yes, a listing on toolnav carries a dofollow link. The site has a domain rating of 37.
Does toolnav require a backlink to your site?
Yes, toolnav expects a link back from your site as part of listing.
What gets you rejected from toolnav?
Products with no live URL.