THE BOARD

A Startup Stash alternative where the price and the position are on the page

Startup Stash is the directory that once held the record for the most upvoted product on Product Hunt, and it still carries over two thousand tools marked verified by their owners beside editorial shortlists its own pages say money cannot buy into. If you sell a tool to startups and want to sit in that company, the way in on 6 September 2026 was an email: the listing page showed no form, and no page on the site shows a price.

If you want to see the price and the position before you pay, The Board puts a brand on a public leaderboard for a dollar, sorts it by what it paid, and shows the traffic count on a dashboard Fathom runs.

Startup Stash compared with The Board: to be listed, Unpriced against $1
Startup StashThe Board
To be listed
Unpricedthe site says listings are paid; no figure is published
$1once, on the board today
Way in
By emailthe listing page showed no form on 6 September 2026
A forma logo, a line, a link and a dollar
Position decided by
Not stateda Featured sort exists; how it is earned is unpublished
Moneythe amount is the rank
Reach
141Kvisits, Similarweb, July 2026; launchdirectories says 11K
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 Startup Stash were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Startup Stash is, and what it costs

Startup Stash is a directory of tools and resources for startups, made by Bram Kanstein, acquired in November 2017 and run from Tel Aviv, per PitchBook. Its about page, last modified in August 2020, calls it the biggest online directory of its kind and the most upvoted product on Product Hunt of all time. On 6 September 2026 the explore page's filters counted 2,241 listings verified by their owners and 20 unverified, 264 free tools and 774 paid ones, with sort options of newest, featured and name. Vendors list themselves; the Top Tools shortlists are written by the site's own team through a seven-step review, and the site is emphatic that the two are separate things.

No price is published anywhere on the site. The add-listing page rendered the header and the footer and nothing between them on 6 September 2026, in a headless fetch and in a browser; the advertise page is a navigation bar and an email address. The site does confirm that listings are paid, in the disclosure under its articles: a paid listing does not buy a place on a shortlist, and a listing is not a paid rank on a Top Tools page. A Product Hunt reviewer writing three years ago describes filling in the form and then being emailed for a payment the site had not mentioned; a directory of directories updated on 5 September 2026 says submissions are free. What a listing costs, and how a listing becomes Featured in the directory sort, is whatever the email says.

The site publishes no visitor figure. Similarweb's page for July 2026 shows 141,000 visits, a bounce rate of 40.2 percent and 25 seconds a visit; launchdirectories, updated 5 September 2026, puts monthly traffic at 11,000 and the outbound links at nofollow; a Crunchbase description says it is used by hundreds of thousands of people every month. The three do not agree, and none of them is Startup Stash's own.

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 Startup Stash’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.

Startup Stash and The Board, side by side

QuestionStartup StashThe Board
To be listedNo price published. The site says listings are paid, and the listing form was blank on 6 September 2026; the way in is an email$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your positionThe directory sorts by newest, name or Featured, and how Featured is obtained is not published. The editorial shortlists are separate and not for saleWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionNot sold. The site says money does not buy a place, a rank or a softer limitation on its shortlists$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsNot stated; listing pages carry no expiryUntil 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 verifyNone published. Similarweb 141K visits (July 2026); launchdirectories 11K a month (5 September 2026)Page views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsNo refund clause. Terms last modified 27 October 2020, under the laws of IsraelNone. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withStartup Stash, with no legal entity or address in its own documents; Tel Aviv, per PitchBookDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA startup tool that wants a verified entry in a well-known directory and can wait for the emailA brand that wants the price and the position in front of it before it pays

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionStartup StashThe Board
Terms with a date on them✓ Last modified 27 October 2020✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✕ Only the site's name; no entity or address in its terms✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✕ Nothing is priced in public; shortlists are not for sale✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✓ Similarweb 141K, launchdirectories 11K; site says nothing✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ No expiry on a listing page✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✕ No refund clause in the 2020 terms✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✕ The way in is an email; the shortlists are editorial✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✕ No price published; listings are paid✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Startup Stash

Startup Stash sends you to a listing page and, on the day this was checked, the page was blank; the price arrives by email once you have filled in whatever form is there. The Board puts the price first. A listing is a logo, a line and a link, it is a dollar, and it 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.

There is no verified label to apply for and no shortlist to be kept off. Every listing on the page is a paid placement and the page says so; the position is what it paid, rank 01 is a dollar over the holder, and every amount is public. It holds until somebody pays more, an amount never goes down, and thirty days at the top ends the season, freezing the standings on a permanent page and resetting the amounts. Fathom counts the page views and outbound clicks in public, so the traffic figure Startup Stash leaves to outside estimators is on the page here.

Where Startup Stash falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • No price is published and the listing form was blank on the day. What a listing costs is learned by email after the form, as one reviewer describes.
  • The terms and the about page date from 2020, name no company and no address, and are governed by the laws of Israel; there is no refund clause.
  • The site publishes no visitor figure, and the outside estimates run from 11,000 to 141,000 a month.
Wins
  • The name still carries the Product Hunt record, and the directory is large: over 2,200 tools verified by their owners.
  • The editorial side is alive and plain about itself: the review process was updated in August 2026 and says in so many words that money does not buy a place on a shortlist.
  • A verified label beside a listing is a small signal that a plain directory row does not carry.

Which to pick

Pick Startup Stash if
  • You sell a tool to startups and want it in a directory people know by name.
  • You are content to learn the price by email after filling in the form.
  • The editorial shortlists matter to you, and you understand a listing does not buy a place on them.
Pick The Board if
  • You want the price on the page before you pay, and the position beside it.
  • You want a company name, a founder's name and dated terms on the receipt.
  • You want the reach counted by somebody other than the seller.

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 Startup Stash alternative

How much does a Startup Stash listing cost?
The site does not say. No page publishes a price, the add-listing page showed no form on 6 September 2026, and the advertise page is an email address. The site confirms listings are paid in the disclosure under its articles, a Product Hunt reviewer describes being emailed for payment after filling in the form, and a directory of directories updated on 5 September 2026 lists submissions as free. The figure is whatever the email says.
Is there a free Startup Stash 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 a dollar, and what the dollar buys is a position that stays until somebody pays more.
Does paying Startup Stash get a tool onto its Top Tools lists?
No, and the site is emphatic. Its review page, modified 19 August 2026, says a listing on Startup Stash is not a paid rank on a Top Tools page and that money does not buy a place, a rank or a softer limitation; the disclosure under each article repeats that a paid listing does not buy a place on a shortlist. The shortlists are written by the team and the byline is never a vendor.
Who runs Startup Stash?
Its own terms and privacy policy, both dated October 2020, name only Startup Stash, with no company and no address, and choose the laws of Israel. PitchBook records the site as acquired on 1 November 2017 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, with Asaf Fybish as Chief Of Stash; the founder was Bram Kanstein. No payment processor is named anywhere.
Is The Board a Startup Stash alternative?
For being seen by people who watch brands, yes, and it works differently. Startup Stash is a curated directory with editorial shortlists and a paid listing whose price you learn by email; 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 both the price and the position are on the page before you pay.
What does The Board cost compared to Startup Stash?
Startup Stash publishes no price for a listing. A listing on The Board is $1, paid once, and rank 01 costs $1 more than whoever holds it has paid. Every amount is public, nothing bills again, and no payment is refunded; the terms say so.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
You move down one place and your listing stays; the amount you paid never goes down. You get one mail saying who passed you and what taking the place back costs, and not another until you have paid to move, so a busy week is one message. Raise by any whole-dollar amount or leave it. Waiting is free.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes. Anyone can pay for 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, it can be cleared early or protected against ahead of time, and nobody is told who attacked whom. Backing a listing is also for sale, and backing is public.
Do I get a backlink from The Board?
Not one to buy the listing for. Outbound links go through a counted redirect and the embeddable badge carries rel=sponsored, which is what a paid placement has to do. Third-party guides list Startup Stash's own outbound links as nofollow, and the site itself does not say. Buy the position for the people who see it and click it; both 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, KillerStartups, StartupBase, Launching Next. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.