THE BOARD

A KillerStartups alternative where the price is on the page before you write in

KillerStartups is a publication, not a directory. What it sells is a feature article written by its editorial team from your answers, run on a Monday in the publication and in its newsletter, under a masthead that featured Uber in 2010. If a written piece with that pedigree is what you want and you are content to learn the price by email, write in.

If you want the price on the page before you write anything, and a position you can take today and hold rather than an article on a schedule, The Board lists a brand for a dollar, sorts it by what it paid, and counts the traffic with Fathom in public.

KillerStartups compared with The Board: to be listed, Unpriced against $1
KillerStartupsThe Board
To be listed
Unpricedno price on the site; the last published was $169
$1once, on the board today
Who decides
An editorwrites the feature and runs it on a Monday
Moneythe amount is the rank
Wait to be listed
Unstatedthe free wait was once quoted at three to six months
Nonepay and you are on
Reach
Its ownand its pages disagree: 125,000 to millions a month
Fathompage views and clicks, in public

The Board is ours, so read this with that in mind. Every listing on it is a paid placement, its position is decided by money and by nothing else, and nothing on it is editorial. The figures for KillerStartups were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What KillerStartups is, and what it costs

KillerStartups began in 2007 as a startup-discovery blog and is now a publication in four sections, startups, personal finance, digital-nomad life and mindset, published by Brown Brothers Media in Singapore with three named editors. A listing is an article: you answer the submission questions in full, the editorial team writes a Feature Article from them, and articles go out weekly, every Monday, or Tuesday after a holiday. Incomplete answers or pasted placeholder text are denied. A published feature appears in the Featured section, in the newsletter, and under a voting feature.

No price is on any live page. The submit page on 6 September 2026 promised a form on the next screen and carried only a newsletter sign-up; the about page names an address for advertising and partnerships; and the media kit, a PDF created in January 2023, lists Editorial Web Content, Sponsored Web Content, Newsletter Blasts and Featured Startups with no figure beside any of them and the instruction to fill out the form and pay online. The last price the site is known to have published was on a Speedy Submission page, which offered a feature within 48 hours for $169, refunded by PayPal if the site chose not to review it, against a three-to-six-month minimum for free submissions; that page returned a 404 on 6 September 2026 and survives only as a search snippet.

The reach figures are the site's own and they do not agree with each other. The submit page says over 125,000 monthly unique views and six million annual page views; the about page says millions of readers each month; the advertise page says over 100 million visitors since launch; the January 2023 media kit says 128,000 monthly visitors and 1.2 million newsletter subscribers. Similarweb's July 2026 page shows 693 visits with a bounce rate of 100 percent, which is so far below every claim that it reads as a measurement failure rather than a count, and Semrush has no page for the domain.

The price of a place, and the price of the top

Two prices matter: what it costs to be on the page at all, and what it costs to be the one everybody sees first. Drawn to scale, with The Board’s top spot read live from the board.

A log scale: every gridline is ten times the last, which is the only way a dollar and a five-figure sum fit on one line. Prices on the left are KillerStartups’s as read on 6 September 2026; the top spot on The Board is $101 as this page was built and changes as the board does.

KillerStartups and The Board, side by side

QuestionKillerStartupsThe Board
To be listedNo price on the live site. The last published figure was $169 for a feature within 48 hours, on a page that is now gone$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your positionAn editor. The team decides whether to write the article, and it runs on a MondayWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionSponsored articles and newsletter blasts are sold by email; no price or duration is published$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsThe article is a permanent post; the featured slot follows the weekly Monday cycleUntil somebody pays more. Hold rank 01 for 30 days and the season is yours: the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets
Reach you can verifyIts own figures, which disagree: 125,000 monthly uniques on one page, millions of readers a month on another. Similarweb reads 693 visits (July 2026)Page views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsNo terms page found. The only refund rule ever published was on the $169 page, now goneNone. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withBrown Brothers Media Pte. Ltd., Singapore, with three named editorsDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA startup that wants a written feature under a masthead with an early-discoveries recordA brand that wants a priced position it can take today and hold

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionKillerStartupsThe Board
Terms with a date on them✕ No terms page found; four addresses return 404✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ Brown Brothers Media Pte. Ltd., Singapore✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ Sponsored content is sold by email, unpriced✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ Its own figures, which disagree; Similarweb reads 693✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ The article is a permanent post✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✕ None found; the only rule was on a page now gone✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✕ An editorial team decides, and writes it✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✕ No price published; the last was $169✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving KillerStartups

KillerStartups asks for your story and an editor turns it into an article on their schedule. The Board asks for a logo, a line and a link, and a dollar. There is nobody to write it up and no Monday to wait for: the listing is on the page at whatever rank a dollar buys the moment it is paid for, on a board sorted by what each brand has paid, top to bottom.

The price is the first thing on the page rather than the last thing in an email. A listing is a dollar, rank 01 is a dollar over the holder, and every amount is public, so what any position costs is a number you read. The position holds until somebody pays more; thirty days at the top ends the season, freezes the standings on a permanent page and resets every amount. Fathom counts the page views and outbound clicks on a public dashboard, and every listing shows its own impressions and clicks, so the audience is one figure rather than four.

Where KillerStartups falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • There is no price on the site. The media kit has packages without figures, the submit page has a newsletter form, and the only number ever published, $169, is on a page that is gone.
  • The reach is stated four ways and the four do not agree. A buyer cannot tell which figure the feature is priced against.
  • There is no terms page to be found, and the only refund rule ever published went with the $169 page.
Wins
  • It is a written feature by a named editorial team, and the article is a permanent post rather than a row in a list.
  • The masthead has a record: Uber in 2010, Tinder, and, by its own count, over 88,000 startups reviewed since 2007.
  • The feature travels: the publication's Featured section, the newsletter, and a vote, all from one submission.

Which to pick

Pick KillerStartups if
  • You want an article about your startup written by an editor, not a row you wrote yourself.
  • A feature under a masthead that ran early pieces on Uber and Tinder is worth a price you learn by email.
  • You are happy to answer a questionnaire in full and wait for a Monday.
Pick The Board if
  • You want the price on the page before you type anything.
  • You want a position you can take today and hold, not an article on a weekly schedule.
  • You want one reach figure, counted by somebody else, rather than four of the seller's.

Claim a spot from $1

A listing is a logo, a line and a link. Rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it, every amount on the page is public, and the traffic is on a Fathom dashboard anyone can open.

Questions people ask about a KillerStartups alternative

How much does it cost to be featured on KillerStartups?
No live page says. On 6 September 2026 the submit page carried a newsletter sign-up and no form, the about page gave an email address for advertising and partnerships, and the media kit from January 2023 listed its packages without a price. The last figure the site is known to have published was $169 for a Speedy Submission, a feature within 48 hours, on a page that now returns a 404. The price is whatever the reply to your email says.
Is there a free KillerStartups alternative?
For software, AlternativeTo lists an app for nothing after a review backlog of a few months, and SaaSHub lists a product for nothing after an approval process. Show HN is free for anything with a demo. The Board is not free; it is a dollar, and what the dollar buys is a position that stays until somebody pays more.
How long does KillerStartups take to publish a feature?
Articles are published weekly, every Monday, or on Tuesday when Monday is a holiday, per the how-to-submit page, and the wait before your Monday is not stated. The Speedy Submission page, gone since at least 6 September 2026, had put a paid feature at two business days against a three-to-six-month minimum for free submissions.
How many readers does KillerStartups have?
It depends which of its pages you read. The submit page says over 125,000 monthly unique views and six million annual page views; the about page says millions of readers a month; the advertise page says over 100 million visitors since 2007; the January 2023 media kit says 128,000 monthly visitors and 1.2 million newsletter subscribers. Similarweb shows 693 visits for July 2026, which looks like a measurement failure rather than a count. There is no third-party figure to settle it.
Is The Board a KillerStartups alternative?
For being seen by people who watch new brands, yes, and it is a different object. KillerStartups writes an article about you and runs it on a Monday; The Board is a public leaderboard where every listing is a paid placement, the position is decided by what each brand paid and nothing else, and it holds until somebody pays more. Nothing is written about you; the listing is yours.
What does The Board cost compared to KillerStartups?
KillerStartups publishes no price; the last one it did publish was $169 for a 48-hour feature, on a page that is gone. A listing on The Board is $1, paid once, and rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it has paid. Every amount is on the page and nothing bills again.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
Your listing moves down one place and stays; what you paid never goes down. You are told once who passed you and what taking the position back would cost, and not again until you have paid to move, so a busy day is one mail. Raise by any whole-dollar amount or leave it. Waiting costs nothing.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, and it is part of the game. Anyone can buy one of four kinds of sabotage against a listing; each changes how it looks or whether its link works for a few hours, never what it paid or its real rank. It wears off on its own, you can clear it early or protect against it ahead of time, and nobody is told who attacked whom.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Outbound links go through a counted redirect and the badge you can embed carries rel=sponsored, which is what an honest paid placement has to do. KillerStartups makes no claim about its own links either; the claim that a feature there is an SEO backlink comes from third-party directories. Buy the position for the people who see it and click it, both of which are counted and shown.

Sources

Read on 6 September 2026. Prices on these sites move, and a figure here that no longer matches its source is a figure to tell us about: hello@toptheboard.com.

Also compared: AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, Startup Stash, StartupBase, Launching Next. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.