THE BOARD

A Launching Next alternative where nobody reviews the queue and the price is on the page

Launching Next has been publishing startups since 2013 and had 45,669 of them on 6 September 2026. If a permanent page with a dofollow link is worth a wait of unstated length, submit for free; if it is worth $99, the Fast-Track publishes within a business day and refunds in full if it does not.

If you want a position you chose rather than a date an editor chose, The Board lists a brand for a dollar today, ranks it by what it paid, and counts the traffic with Fathom in public, under terms that have a date on them.

Launching Next compared with The Board: to be listed, Free against $1
Launching NextThe Board
To be listed
Freeeditors decide; $99 to be read within a business day
$1once, on the board today
Fast-Track
$99on the submit page; $149 on another page of the same site
No editormoney decides the position
Promote
$500+a month, for 8,000 guaranteed impressions
$1no monthly charge
Reach
Unpublishedno visitor figure; Similarweb reads 39.3K a quarter
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 Launching Next were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Launching Next is, and what it costs

Launching Next is an editorial startup directory with a Friday newsletter. You fill in a form (a name, a URL, a headline of five to eight words, up to 2,500 characters of description, tags, and a 90-day marketing spend estimate), the editors review the queue every day and publish what they choose, and an email tells you when it goes up. The home page lists the newest, the Trending page lists the twenty most popular without saying what popular measures, and there is no voting.

Submitting is free. The page after the form offers Fast-Track at $99, one time, for publication on the home page within one business day, a tweet to 25,000+ followers, a place in the weekly founder email and a permanent dofollow link, with a full refund if the startup cannot be published. The site's own llm-info page prices the same thing at $149, and on 6 September 2026 both pages were live. The Promote programme is monthly: Seed Boost at $500 for 8,000 guaranteed impressions, Growth Engine at $1,500 for 30,000 and Market Leader at $4,500 for 90,000, each with an editorial profile and weekly reporting, and a missed target extends the run for free until it is met.

No monthly visitor figure is published. The newsletter is 5,000+ founders on the home page and 18,000+ on the Fast-Track page, both on 6 September 2026. Similarweb's July 2026 page reads 39.3K visits over three months. There is no terms of service page: the address /terms/ serves the home page, and the privacy policy is effective 3 September 2019.

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 Launching Next’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.

Launching Next and The Board, side by side

QuestionLaunching NextThe Board
To be listedFree, reviewed by editors with no published wait; $99 Fast-Track for publication within one business day$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your positionAn editor's choice and the date: newest first on the home page, and a Trending page that does not say what it measuresWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionNot sold. Promote buys impressions, 8,000 a month for $500 up to 90,000 for $4,500, not a place on the page$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsThe listing is permanent; how long it stays on the home page is not statedUntil 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 verifyNo visitor figure published. Similarweb's July 2026 page reads 39.3K visits in three months; subscribers are 5,000+ on one page and 18,000+ on anotherPage views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsFast-Track is refunded in full if the startup is not published; Promote makes up missed impressions with free timeNone. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withLaunching Next, since 2013; Alex Robb named as co-founder on one page; no terms page, a privacy policy from 2019, Stripe and SquareDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA startup that wants a permanent directory page with a dofollow link and can wait for an editorA brand that wants to be on a page today at a position it chose, with the rules written down

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionLaunching NextThe Board
Terms with a date on them✕ No terms page; /terms/ serves the home page✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ Alex Robb, co-founder, on one page; no address✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ No position is sold; Promote sells impressions✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ None published; Similarweb's estimate only✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ The listing is permanent; home page time unstated✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✓ Fast-Track refunded in full if not published✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✕ Editors review every submission✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✓ Free, if the editors publish it✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Launching Next

Where Launching Next has an editor and a queue, The Board has a price. A listing is a logo, a line and a link, it costs a dollar, and it goes on the page the moment it is paid for, at whatever rank a dollar buys on a board sorted by what each brand has paid. Nobody reads it first, and there is no form asking what you plan to spend over the next 90 days.

Where Launching Next sells impressions by the month, The Board sells a position once. Rank 01 is a dollar over whoever holds it, every amount is public, and the position holds until somebody pays more. Hold the top for thirty days and the season ends: the standings are kept on a permanent page and the amounts reset. Page views and outbound clicks are counted by Fathom on a public dashboard, and the terms are dated.

Where Launching Next falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • The queue has no published length. The site says submissions are reviewed daily and not when yours will be published, and a directory review updated 5 September 2026 has founders waiting weeks or months without the upgrade.
  • The site disagrees with itself on price and on reach. Fast-Track is $99 on the submit page and $149 on the llm-info page; the newsletter is 5,000+ on the home page and 18,000+ on the upsell.
  • There is no terms page. The address serves the home page, the privacy policy is from 2019, and the only named person is a co-founder on one page with no address.
Wins
  • The listing is permanent and it carries a dofollow link, free or paid, from a domain that has been publishing since 2013.
  • The Fast-Track refund is real: if the startup is not published, the $99 comes back in full, and the page says no questions asked.
  • Promote guarantees a number. Miss 8,000 impressions in 30 days and the profile stays up free until they are delivered, which is more than most directories put in writing.

Which to pick

Pick Launching Next if
  • You want a permanent directory page with a dofollow link and are in no hurry.
  • You will pay $99 to be published within a business day and want the refund if you are not.
  • You want impressions guaranteed by the month and reported weekly.
Pick The Board if
  • You want to be on a page today, at a position you chose, with no editor in between.
  • You want a price that is the same on every page and terms that are dated.
  • You want the traffic counted by a third party rather than not counted at all.

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 Launching Next alternative

Is Launching Next free?
Yes, for the standard submission: the submit page says so on 6 September 2026, and the editors review the queue daily and publish what they choose. The $99 Fast-Track, offered on the page after the form, is the paid way to be published within one business day, and the Promote programme is a separate monthly purchase from $500.
How long does Launching Next take to publish a startup?
The site does not say. It reviews submissions every day and emails when yours goes up, and it publishes no queue length; LaunchDirectories, updated 5 September 2026, reports founders waiting weeks or months without the upgrade. With Fast-Track the promise is one business day, refunded in full if it cannot be kept.
How much does Launching Next Fast-Track cost?
$99, one time, on the submit and thanks pages on 6 September 2026, for home page publication within one business day, a tweet, a newsletter mention and a dofollow link, refunded in full if the startup cannot be published. The site's own llm-info page says $149 for the same thing. Take the price on the page you pay through.
Does Launching Next have terms of service?
Not that could be found. The address /terms/ serves the home page, and the privacy policy is effective 3 September 2019. The Fast-Track refund promise and the Promote guarantee are on the pages that sell them rather than in a document. The Board's terms are dated 25 August 2026.
Is The Board a Launching Next alternative?
For being seen by people who watch new brands, yes, and it works the other way round. Launching Next is a directory an editor curates, sorted by date; The Board is a public leaderboard where every listing is a paid placement, sorted by what each one paid, with no editor and no queue. One gives you a page; the other gives you a position.
What does The Board cost compared to Launching Next?
Launching Next is free to submit, $99 for Fast-Track on its submit page ($149 on its llm-info page) and $500 to $4,500 a month for Promote, per the site on 6 September 2026. A listing on The Board is $1, once; rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid, every amount is public, and nothing bills monthly.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
Your listing drops one place and stays on the board; the amount you paid never goes down. You get one mail saying who passed you and what it costs to take the position back, and you can add any whole-dollar amount or leave it where it is. Waiting costs nothing.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, and it is part of the design. Anyone can buy one of four kinds of sabotage against a listing, which 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 in advance, and nobody is told who attacked whom.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for, which is the plain difference from Launching Next's dofollow. Outbound links from the board go through a counted redirect and the embeddable badge carries rel=sponsored. Buy the position for the people who see it and click it; both are counted and shown on the listing.

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, KillerStartups, Startup Stash, StartupBase. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.