THE BOARD

A Tiny Startups alternative where the pay-to-rank board has a dollar floor, a stated end and a counter you can check

Tiny Startups is two boards under one name. If you want a free weekly launch with a lifetime listing page and a link at the end of it, submit to the launchpad and wait for a Monday. If you want to pay for a rank today, its Spotlight board sells exactly that from $49, with every amount public and a newsletter behind it that the site says 20,000 people read.

If you want the pay-to-rank mechanic with a floor of a dollar, a stated life for the position, a rule for how the season ends and a traffic count kept by somebody else, that is what The Board is.

Tiny Startups compared with The Board: to be listed, Free or $49 against $1
Tiny StartupsThe Board
To be listed
Free or $49the weekly launchpad, or the Spotlight floor
$1once, on the board today
Spotlight top
$260to pass the top on 6 September 2026
$1 overwhatever rank 01 has paid
Position lasts
Unstatedno end and no season on the Spotlight
Until outbidand 30 days at the top wins the season
Reach
20K to 25Ksubscribers, its own figures, by page
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 Tiny Startups were read from its own pages on 6 September 2026 and are linked at the foot.

What Tiny Startups is, and what it costs

Tiny Startups runs two things at one address. The home page is the Spotlight board: pay what you want, minimum $49 in whole dollars, and the more you pay the higher you rank, with no upvotes and the amounts printed beside each listing. The about page and /launch describe the older one, a free weekly launchpad ranked by upvotes from Monday to Sunday, where the top two each week earn a Product of the Week badge and every entry keeps a lifetime listing page. Startup of the Day is a third thing: one hand-picked product, changed at midnight UTC.

On 6 September 2026 the Spotlight's top nine read $250 down to $129, with 62 more below, and passing the top was offered at $260. Launching on the weekly board is free after a review queue with no stated wait; Skip the queue is $29 on the about page and $99 in the terms (effective 2 May 2026), read the same day, and the terms also list a $99 do-follow link, a $129 newsletter feature, $199 for four partner links and a $299-a-year membership. A tool listing and a deal listing are $49 each. All sales are final; a rejected listing is credited, not refunded.

The reach is self-reported and the pages disagree: 25,000+ newsletter readers on the home page, 20,000+ on the about page, 10,000+ a day on the advertising page. launchdirectories.com's estimate, updated 5 September 2026, was 31 monthly visits, which is a different kind of number and a long way from any of the three. How long a Spotlight spot lasts is not stated anywhere on the site, and there is no season and no reset rule.

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 Tiny Startups’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.

Tiny Startups and The Board, side by side

QuestionTiny StartupsThe Board
To be listedFree on the weekly launchpad after a review; $49 minimum on the Spotlight board$1, once, for a listing: a logo, a line and a link
What decides your rankMoney on the Spotlight; upvotes on the weekly launchpad; an editor's pick for Startup of the DayWhat the listing has paid. Nothing else, and nobody decides
A guaranteed top positionSpotlight rank 01 goes to the highest bid: $250 held it on 6 Sep 2026, $260 to pass$1 more than whoever holds rank 01 has paid
How long it lastsSpotlight: not stated, and no season. Launchpad: Monday to Sunday, then a lifetime listing pageUntil 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: 20,000+ or 25,000+ subscribers depending on the page; clicks shown per Spotlight listingPage views and outbound clicks counted by Fathom on a public dashboard; every listing shows its own impressions and clicks
RefundsNone. All sales final, no chargebacks; a rejected listing is credited (terms, 2 May 2026)None. Every payment is final and the terms (dated 25 August 2026) say so
Who you are dealing withTiny Startup Studio, by Jaisal; English law, no registered name or address; StripeDustin W. Stout, Bakersfield, California. Stripe, with a public Stripe profile
Best forA founder who wants a free launch week with a link, or a $49 rank on a small pay-to-rank board with a newsletter behind itA brand that wants the pay-to-rank mechanic from a dollar, with an end rule and a counter it can check

Eight things to know before you pay either

QuestionTiny StartupsThe Board
Terms with a date on them✓ Effective 2 May 2026✓ Dated 25 August 2026
A named operator✓ Tiny Startup Studio, by Jaisal; English law, no address✓ Dustin W. Stout, with a city and a Stripe profile
The price of the top spot published✓ Spotlight top was $250 on 6 Sep 2026, $260 to pass it✓ On the board, live, to the dollar
Reach counted by a third party✕ Its own figures, 20,000 to 25,000, and they disagree✓ Fathom, on a public dashboard
Position lasts past a day✓ Spotlight states no end; a launch week is seven days✓ Until somebody pays more; seasons end it
A refund path✕ None; a rejected listing gets credit, not cash✕ None. Every payment is final
No curator between you and the page✓ Spotlight lists at once; free launches enter a review queue✓ None. Money decides, nobody else
On the page for a dollar✓ Free on the weekly launchpad; the Spotlight starts at $49✓ $1, once

How The Board works, for somebody leaving Tiny Startups

If you have looked at the Spotlight you already know the mechanic: pay, and the amount is the rank. The Board runs the same rule with three things written down that the Spotlight leaves out. The floor is a dollar rather than $49. Rank 01 costs a dollar over the holder, not ten. And the position has a stated life: it lasts until somebody pays more, and a season ends when one brand has held the top for thirty days, at which point the standings freeze on a permanent page and every amount resets.

There is no second board with a different rule. No weekly launchpad, no upvotes, no editor's pick of the day: one page where every listing is a paid placement and the page says so. Every amount is public, as on the Spotlight, and so is the traffic. Fathom counts the page views and outbound clicks on a dashboard the site cannot edit, so the number you are buying against is not the seller's.

Where Tiny Startups falls short, and where it wins

Falls short
  • How long a Spotlight spot lasts is not on the page, and there is no season: the ladder has no end and no reset, so the floor only rises.
  • The two boards run on opposite rules and the terms describe neither cleanly: the terms say rank is upvotes while the home page sells it for money, and Skip the queue is $29 on one page and $99 on another.
  • The reach figures are its own and they disagree by page, and the only outside estimate on record is 31 visits a month.
Wins
  • It prints the amounts. Every Spotlight listing shows what it paid and how many clicks it got, which is more than most launch sites show.
  • The free weekly launchpad is still free, with a lifetime listing page and a link, and a $29 skip if the wait is too long.
  • The newsletter is a real second channel, whatever the exact count, and a newsletter feature is priced rather than promised.

Which to pick

Pick Tiny Startups if
  • You want a free launch week with a listing page and a link, and can wait for a Monday.
  • You want a paid rank with a newsletter behind it, and $49 is fine as a floor.
  • You care about the do-follow link, which The Board does not sell.
Pick The Board if
  • You want the pay-to-rank mechanic from a dollar, not from $49.
  • You want to know how long the position lasts and how the season ends, in writing.
  • You want the traffic counted by somebody who is not selling the spot.

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 Tiny Startups alternative

Is there a free Tiny Startups alternative?
Tiny Startups' own weekly launchpad is free, after a review queue with no stated wait. Beyond it, Peerlist Launchpad is free and weekly, Dev Hunt is free for developer tools, and Show HN is free for anything with a demo. The Board is a dollar, for a position that stays until somebody pays more.
Is The Board a Tiny Startups alternative?
To the Spotlight board, directly: both sell rank for money and print the amounts. The Board adds a dollar floor, a dollar raise over the holder, a stated life for the position, a season that ends and resets, and a Fathom count. To the free weekly launchpad it is a different product: a place rather than a week.
What does The Board cost compared to Tiny Startups?
The Spotlight's minimum bid is $49 and passing its top was $260 on 6 September 2026; the weekly launchpad is free, with a $29 skip on the about page and $99 in the terms. A listing on The Board is $1, rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid, and every amount on the page is public. Nothing bills again.
How much does it cost to be number one on Tiny Startups?
On 6 September 2026 the Spotlight's top listing had paid $250 and the page offered $260 to pass it, ten dollars over. The minimum bid is $49. On The Board rank 01 costs $1 more than the holder paid and the live figure is on the board.
How long does a Tiny Startups Spotlight spot last?
The site does not say. Nothing read on 6 September 2026 states whether a paid spot expires or only moves down as higher bids arrive, and there is no season or reset rule. On The Board the position lasts until somebody pays more, and a season ends after one brand holds the top for thirty days.
Is Tiny Startups worth it?
For a free launch with a lifetime listing page, it costs nothing but the wait, and the newsletter is a real second channel. For a paid Spotlight spot, the amounts are public so you can see what the rank above you cost, but how long the spot lasts is not stated and the audience figures are the site's own and disagree by page. Read your own analytics after a week either way.
What happens when somebody outbids me?
The same thing that happens on the Spotlight, with one difference written down: your listing moves down one place, the amount you paid never goes down, and you are told once who passed you and what taking the position back would cost. Raise by any whole-dollar amount, or wait. Waiting is free.
Can other brands damage my listing?
Yes, which the Spotlight does not have. 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 buy protection 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. Tiny Startups sells its do-follow link and prices it; The Board's 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. 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: Product Hunt, BetaList, Uneed, Peerlist Launchpad, Fazier, Microlaunch, Dev Hunt, LaunchIgniter, BetaPage. Every listing site worth submitting to is in the directory list.