How to Launch on BetaList (2026)

What BetaList says it is

BetaList is a directory of startups that are early, not a one-morning leaderboard you win by lining up supporters. The homepage captured October 24, 2026 is titled “Discover and get early access to tomorrow's startups | BetaList.” The description meta tag says “BetaList provides an overview of upcoming internet startups. Discover and get early access to the future.” The line on the page itself is “Discover tomorrow's startups, today.” The next sentence is “BetaList helps you find early-stage startups before they make it big.”

The support page, titled “Support & FAQ,” answers “What is BetaList?” with this sentence: “BetaList is the place for early adopters to discover upcoming and recently launched internet startups, and for startup founders to share their startup with the world and get early user feedback.” That page was captured September 30, 2026. It is the FAQ this guide quotes.

It is not a free queue. Under Submissions, the same page says “All submissions are paid. There is no free submission option.” The short catalog version on this site is /platforms/betalist. This guide does not copy traffic or signup ranges from that catalog page. If the product is already public, or it is not the kind of startup the guidelines describe, the comparison on this site is /guides/betalist-alternatives.

What was read on October 30, 2026

Checked October 30, 2026. Requests for the HTML of https://betalist.com/, https://betalist.com/submit, https://betalist.com/support, https://betalist.com/faq, and https://betalist.com/pricing returned HTTP 403 with a Cloudflare challenge (cf-mitigated: challenge). The page bodies below are Wayback captures of betalist.com, with the capture date on each one. Where a page does not say a price, a wait, a form field, or a follow attribute, this guide says not stated.

The newest homepage capture in the index used here is October 24, 2026. Logged-out https://betalist.com/submit on October 22, 2026, and again on October 6, 2026, is an HTTP 302 to https://betalist.com/login. The login page captured the same October 22 minute is a sign-in screen, not the submission form. Plan names, plan prices, and the fields on that form are not in those responses. The support FAQ says the prices are shown at the end of the submission form. A public /pricing URL had no HTTP 200 in the Wayback query from 2024 through this check, and the live URL was the same 403.

https://betalist.com/faq on September 30, 2026 is an HTTP 301 to https://betalist.com/support. The support capture from that morning is the newest HTTP 200 for /support in the index from September 1 through October 30. The submission guidelines at /criteria have a newer gap: the newest HTTP 200 in that index is July 12, 2026. The advertise page is September 30, 2026. The boost page is August 30, 2026. One featured startup page, /startups/wzrd, is September 14, 2026. No October 2026 startup-page HTML was in the index query used here.

Where a launch can go

The October 24 header links Home, Browse, Newsletter, Search, Help, Advertise, Startup Jobs (https://startup.jobs), and Vision Pro apps (https://vision.directory). Submit Startup points at /submit. Log in points at /login. The support, guidelines, advertise, and boost captures still label a nav item FAQ, and that path is the one that 301s to /support. The table is the surfaces a founder actually hits. A cell that says not stated means that page did not print the fact.

What the guidelines say you have to be

The guidelines page captured July 12, 2026 opens with “Before you submit your startup, it's helpful to understand what works best for our audience.” Five cards follow. Several cards show two lists. The second list on those cards is styled with the class text-red-500. This guide treats the first list as the examples the page puts in the default color, and the red list as the examples it marks in red. It does not add a label the page does not print.

“The product should be relatively new.” The page says “Your product should be recently launched or still be unreleased.” And: “If your product has already received significant press coverage, it may be less suitable for our audience.” The default-color list is “Not available to anyone yet,” “Private beta accessible by invitation only,” and “Recently launched.” The red list is “Launched weeks ago or longer,” “Already received significant press coverage,” and “App with the same functionality as a previously released app for different platform.” A number of days that still counts as “recently launched” is not stated. “Weeks ago or longer” is the line in red.

“Not featured on BetaList before.” The only sentence under that heading is “Each startup gets two opportunities to be featured. Once pre-launch, and once during launch. There should be at least a few weeks between those posts.” The support FAQ, captured later, on September 30, says “We generally only feature each startup once, with one exception: if you were previously featured as pre-launch startup you're eligble to get featured again when you launch.” The spelling “eligble” is the spelling on that page. How many weeks “a few weeks” is, is not stated on either page.

“Needs to be a technology startup.” “Our audience visits BetaList to discover new technology startups. It's not the right place to promote your blog, newsletter, online store, etc.” The default-color list is software startups, hardware startups, and “Old ideas with a new twist.” The red list is “Blogs, online courses, books, newsletters,” “Subscription e-commerce,” “Old ideas without substantial improvements,” and “Consultancies / Agencies.”

“A distinct, decent-looking landing page.” The page says “Using a template doesn't inspire confidence and result in less sign ups than expected. For this reason we do not allow templates or pages with little product information.” It also says a startup does not need a world-class designer, and that a decent looking landing page is what the feature is for. The default-color list includes “Distinct design showcasing your (upcoming) product” and “Heavily customised template that looks original.” The red list includes “Free or paid template,” “Default Bootstrap style,” “Page with only an 'explainer video',” “Hosted page by LaunchRock, Unbounce, KickoffLabs, or similar service,” free hosting subdomains (yourapp.vercel.app, yourapp.netlify.app, yourapp.herokuapp.com), and “Direct link to App Store, Google Play, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or Facebook page.” The support FAQ’s domain line matches that subdomain list: “Your startup must have its own domain—we don't accept submissions using free hosting subdomains (like vercel.app, netlify.app, herokuapp.com) or direct links to app stores.” The guidelines page links “Designing your landing page” at https://guides.betalist.com/designing-your-landing-page. The body of that guide was not read for this check.

“Visitors should be able to sign up or get access.” “There's no point in getting featured on BetaList if our audience can't engage with your product. We recommend making it easy for visitors to sign up, download, or login to your product.” The default-color list is a custom email signup form, a MailChimp or other form, a download button or app store link, and Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn login. The red list is one line: “Follow us on X to get notified.” A download button or app store link is in this allowed list. A landing page that is only a direct app-store URL is in the red list on the design card. Both lines are on the July 12 page. This guide does not collapse them into one rule.

How to submit, as far as the pages say

The support FAQ answers “How do I get my startup included on the site?” with “Please review our submission guidelines and submit your startup.” The guidelines link is /criteria. The submit link is /submit. “How do I submit my startup?” is shorter: “Go to this page,” and that page is also /submit. The July 12 guidelines footer says “Ready to submit?” and the button “Submit your Startup” points at /submit. On the July 12 and September 30 headers, the nav item “Submit Startup” points at /sign_in instead. On the October 24 homepage, the same nav words point at /submit, and Log in points at /login. Use the URL the capture you are looking at actually uses, then sign in if it sends you there.

An account is required before the form, on the days /submit was archived. October 6 and October 22 both answer a logged-out /submit with a 302 to /login. The October 22 login page says “Welcome back” and “Sign in to get started,” offers “Sign in with magic link?” at /sessions/passwordless/new, and says “Don't have an account yet? Sign up,” linking to /signup. The support answer “How do I create an account?” says “Visit the homepage and click the sign up button at the top right.” The October 24 homepage header that was read shows Log in and Submit Startup. It does not show the words Sign up. Which control that September 30 sentence is pointing at, on the October homepage, is not stated.

What happens after the form is on the support page, not on the redirect. “Payment is charged when you choose a plan and complete checkout. Our editorial team then reviews your startup. You'll get an email with the decision. If accepted, we feature it on the timeline for your plan. If it isn't selected, you receive a full refund automatically.” Status is the dashboard: “Visit your dashboard. If you don't see your submission, make sure you are signed in with the same account as you used when submitting your startup.” The dashboard path printed on that page is /dashboard. The fields the form asks for, the plan names, and the prices are not stated on any page that loaded.

You can pay for a faster plan later, and you can try again after a no. “If you've already submitted on a lower plan and want faster featuring or newsletter inclusion, you can upgrade from your dashboard.” If the startup was not selected, the page says you may resubmit after improvements, and it names the things to improve: value proposition, design, and uniqueness. “Unfortunately we're not able to provide specific feedback on individual submissions.” The reason they give for a no is volume and fit: “We receive thousands of submissions every month. We prioritize startup submissions that have a clear value proposition, have an idea we haven't seen before, and have a well-designed landing page, because these are the things that our audience is looking for.”

Edits and deletion go through the account, not through email. “Only the BetaList team can edit featured startups. Visit your dashboard and click the link to request an edit.” Deleting a submission, and deleting an account, both require you to be signed in first. The settings path printed for account deletion is /me/settings. The FAQ says they will not delete a submission or an account from an email, because they need to check that you are the owner. Invoices are a different page: “You can view, customize, and download all your invoices from the billing page,” which is /billing, including company details, VAT ID, and custom notes.

What it costs

The submission fee is not a number on the public pages that were read. The support answers are “Current plans and prices are shown at the end of the submission form” and “See the submission form for current plans.” “What's the difference between the submission plans?” says “Plans differ mainly by how quickly your startup is featured and whether newsletter inclusion is guaranteed. See the submission form for the current options. All plans include a do-follow backlink if featured, and a full refund if not selected. All submissions must still meet our submission guidelines.” A dollar amount for those plans is not stated.

The refund is stated, and it has a stop. “If your startup is not selected, you will receive a full refund automatically. Once your startup has been featured, refunds are not available.” “Refunds are processed automatically when your submission is not selected. It can take 5–10 business days for the refund to appear on your statement, depending on your bank.” There is no sentence on that page that says you can buy a refund after the startup has been featured.

Sponsorship and Boost are different products, with prices printed on their own pages. Do not read them as the submission plans. The advertise page captured September 30, 2026 lists Sponsorship at $4,999/month: “Exclusive promotion across BetaList. One sponsor at a time, so every sponsor slot is yours for the month.” The lines under it are a sponsor slot in Trending Startups on the homepage, a sponsor slot on every startup page, and a “Dedicated slot in every newsletter (60k+ subscribers).” The button “Become a sponsor” points at a buy.stripe.com checkout URL. “Email us for custom packages” is a separate link. Under that, Boost is “From $99/week,” with “One week: $99/week” and “Monthly: $199/month (save 50%).” The same page prints three totals: 70,000+ newsletter subscribers, 500,000+ pageviews per month, and 24,000+ startups featured.

The boost page captured August 30, 2026 prints the same two Boost prices and a different subscriber line in the same HTML. The heading says the newsletter goes to 70,000+ subscribers. The Weekly and Monthly cards each say “Newsletter slot (60k+ subscribers).” The FAQ says the daily newsletter is to 70,000+ subscribers, and that if several boosts are active, “we rotate which startup is shown.” Both 60k+ and 70,000+ are on these two pages. This guide does not pick one. “Introductory pricing — lock in your rate before it goes up” is on the boost page. The higher rate is not stated. “When does my boost start?” is “Immediately after payment.” Cancel stops at the end of the current billing period. “Do I need to be featured on BetaList first?” is “Yes.” The link “submit it here” on that answer points at /startups/new, not at /submit. What /startups/new shows was not in a capture read for this guide.

After the startup is featured

A day count for the review is not on the support page. “How long does it take to get reviewed and featured?” answers “It depends on the plan you paid for. The expected timeline is shown when you choose a plan and in your confirmation email. Review happens before featuring; if your startup isn't selected, you get a full refund.” The boost page, which is about a paid add-on rather than the submission, describes featuring this way: “Being featured is a one-time event — your startup appears on BetaList for a day and then moves down the list.” The October 24 homepage still groups startups under “Today October 24th”, “Yesterday October 23rd”, “Thursday October 22nd”, and “Wednesday October 21st”, and “Load next page” points at /?page=2 with rel="next". That is one homepage render, not a promise that every listing stays on page one for four days. The WZRD page captured September 14 still showed Featured and the date August 13, 2026. How long a listing remains reachable is not given as a single number.

The newsletter is not automatic on every plan. “Whether newsletter inclusion is guaranteed depends on the plan you chose. Check your confirmation email or dashboard. When it isn't guaranteed, the newsletter only includes the most popular featured startups. It takes at least 24 hours between a startup getting featured and being included in the newsletter so we can fairly determine popularity.” The October 24 homepage’s own newsletter block says “Stay ahead of the curve” and “Receive a daily digest of the newest startups.” The boost FAQ calls it a daily newsletter. A way to buy a newsletter slot without being featured is the advertise page’s sponsorship, not a line on the support FAQ.

Trending is a separate block, and the formula is withheld. “The Trending Startups section on the homepage showcases the most popular, recently featured startups. We take a few metrics in mind, including how many tweets a startup post has received. We're not disclosing the exact algorithm, but the more engagement your startup post receives, the higher its chances of getting trending.” The October 24 homepage shows that heading, then startup cards, and a sponsor card whose anchor uses rel="nofollow sponsored" and points at https://betalist.com/promotions/0b6858fa-17ab-4e2c-ae0d-78519ebf0ab1/visit?slot=startups%23index. The visible label on that card is SPONSOR, and the sponsor name on that render is FreeDAST. The advertise page is the page that calls this a “Sponsor slot in Trending Startups on the homepage.”

Two other labels on that homepage are links, not a ranking rule. BOOSTED points at /boost. TESTFLIGHT points at /testflight. What /testflight says was not read. A best hour, a best weekday, and a timezone for going live are not stated on the homepage, the support FAQ, or the guidelines page. Do not invent one from the date groups.

Measurement, as the FAQ states it, is on your side of the click. “We automatically add UTM tracking parameters to links to your website, so you can track traffic from BetaList using Google Analytics or similar tools. Check your analytics dashboard for traffic from source “betalist”. The parameter names beyond that source word are not listed in the answer. The Visit Site answer separately says the 301 adds ref=betalist. Contact details are not part of the public listing: “No, we never share, sell, or publicize your contact information. We don't include email addresses in your public listing.”

Links and backlinks

Follow attributes are a specific answer on the support page, plus the anchors on the two HTML files that contained them. The support question “Does my listing include a do-follow backlink?” answers: “Yes. The Visit Site button on your featured listing is a do-follow link—it does not use rel="nofollow". It routes through a 301 redirect to your website so we can track clicks and add ref=betalist attribution. Google passes link equity through 301 redirects, so the SEO benefit reaches your domain. Some SEO tools display the BetaList URL in reports rather than yours; that is a tool limitation, not lost link value.” The plans answer says the same benefit is on every plan, and only if the startup is featured.

The WZRD page captured September 14, 2026 is the featured listing that was read. Two anchors whose visible text is “Visit Site” use target="_blank", data-turbo="false", and href="/startups/wzrd/visit". They have no rel attribute. Three screenshot anchors on the same page use target="_blank", rel="noopener nofollow", and the same href. The FAQ’s sentence is about the button. The screenshots are a different anchor, with a rel the button does not have. The HTTP response of /startups/wzrd/visit was not captured in this check, so the 301 and the ref=betalist query are what the September 30 FAQ states, not a redirect that was fetched here. Whether every startup page on the site uses the same pair of anchors is not stated.

The sponsor card is a third rel, and it is not the featured listing. On the October 24 homepage the FreeDAST card uses rel="nofollow sponsored". That is the attribute on that anchor. It is not a correction of the Visit Site sentence, and it is not a claim that featured listings use it. The word nofollow does appear on BetaList. It appears on the screenshot anchors and on the sponsor anchor that were read. It does not appear as an attribute on the two Visit Site buttons on the WZRD page.

How this fits the other rooms on this site

BetaList is the paid pre-launch directory. Use it when the product is still unreleased or recently launched, the page can take a signup, and you will pay a plan whose price you have read on the form. It is a poor substitute for a board that exists to rank a public launch for one day, because BetaList does not describe a daily winner beyond the Trending block whose formula is not disclosed. The short catalog version is /platforms/betalist. If the guidelines exclude the product, read /guides/betalist-alternatives before you pay.

Show HN is a different room, on Hacker News, for something strangers can try. That guide is /guides/show-hn and the catalog page is /platforms/hacker-news. Product Hunt is the large daily board. That guide is /guides/how-to-launch-on-product-hunt and the catalog page is /platforms/product-hunt. Reddit is a set of subreddit rules, not one launch button. That guide is /guides/launch-on-reddit and the catalog page is /platforms/reddit. Indie Hackers is the long founder thread. That guide is /guides/launch-on-indie-hackers and the catalog page is /platforms/indie-hackers. BetaList does not say whether those may share a morning with a BetaList feature. Each of those guides is a thread you stay in. Put them on different days.

A list of places that still state a $0 submission is /guides/free-launch-platforms. BetaList is the row that list leaves out, for the same support sentences quoted above. A dated four-week calendar that can hold a plan is /tools/launch-plan-generator. It runs in the browser. It does not submit to BetaList for you. Every guide is listed at /guides.

A short checklist before you pay

Use the guidelines card, then the support FAQ. If a price or a clock is not on the page, leave it blank rather than borrowing one from the advertise page or from another launch site.

• Read https://betalist.com/criteria and https://betalist.com/support. /faq on the September 30 capture redirects to /support.
• The product is recently launched or still unreleased, it is a technology startup, and it has not already been featured except for the pre-launch exception those two pages describe.
• The landing page is on your own domain. It is not a free hosting subdomain, a direct app-store URL, or a page whose only action is “Follow us on X to get notified.”
• Visitors can sign up, download, or log in. The link you care about is the Visit Site button on a live featured page if a follow attribute matters. The buttons checked on WZRD had no rel. The screenshots beside them were rel="noopener nofollow".
• Sign in, then open /submit. The logged-out URL redirected to /login on October 6 and October 22. Read the plan price on the form. It is not printed on the support page, and it is not the $99 Boost or the $4,999 sponsorship.
• Expect an email, not a public clock. The timeline is “shown when you choose a plan and in your confirmation email.” A startup that is not selected is refunded in full. A startup that has been featured is not.
• Product Hunt, Show HN, Reddit, and Indie Hackers are other days. Those guides are /guides/how-to-launch-on-product-hunt, /guides/show-hn, /guides/launch-on-reddit, and /guides/launch-on-indie-hackers. The catalog page is /platforms/betalist.

The pages this guide quotes

Live requests on October 30, 2026 returned HTTP 403 for https://betalist.com/, https://betalist.com/submit, https://betalist.com/support, https://betalist.com/faq, and https://betalist.com/pricing. The captures below are Wayback copies of betalist.com. Redirects are the Location header on that capture.

• Homepage, October 24, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20261024065920/https://betalist.com/
• Submit, October 22, 2026, HTTP 302 to /login: https://web.archive.org/web/20261022101022/https://betalist.com/submit
• Submit, October 6, 2026, HTTP 302 to /login: https://web.archive.org/web/20261006074558/https://betalist.com/submit
• Login, October 22, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20261022101028/https://betalist.com/login
• Support and FAQ, September 30, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260930083134/https://betalist.com/support
• FAQ redirect, September 30, 2026, HTTP 301 to /support: https://web.archive.org/web/20260930083134/https://betalist.com/faq
• Submission guidelines, July 12, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260712213007/https://betalist.com/criteria
• Advertise, September 30, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260930083136/https://betalist.com/advertise
• Boost, August 30, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260830182036/https://betalist.com/boost
• WZRD startup page, September 14, 2026: https://web.archive.org/web/20260914131705/https://betalist.com/startups/wzrd