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What does a software guide charge for a listing?

Published entry prices run from about 99 USD per month to 575 EUR per month, a basic listing is usually free, and a ranking position is never legitimately for sale.

By Thinking Desk 3 min read

Key takeaways

  • Published entry prices range from 99 USD per month at SaaSHub to 575 EUR per month at OMR Reviews, with G2 Starter at 299 USD per month.
  • Capterra, Appvizer and SourceForge publish no price at all, so the quote depends on what the seller thinks you can pay.
  • The paid link market averages 83 USD per link, which buys nothing in SEO terms because paid links must be marked sponsored or nofollow.
  • Refuse to pay for a ranking position, a followed link, the removal of a competitor or weakness, reviews, or any AI recommendation guarantee.
  • Three questions sort advertising from influence: is the price public, what happens to your position if you cancel, and are paid links marked sponsored.
On this page
  1. Short answer
  2. What the directories and review platforms charge
  3. What sponsored articles and paid links cost
  4. What a vendor should refuse to pay for
  5. How to judge an offer in three questions

Short answer

Published entry prices run from about 99 USD per month at the cheap end to 575 EUR per month in the German language segment, with the large review platforms either starting near 299 USD per month or publishing no number at all. A basic listing is usually free. What costs money is a badge, a lead flow or a block of space. Nothing you can legitimately buy is a ranking position.

What the directories and review platforms charge

Platform Published price Model
SaaSHub 99 USD per month (about 91 EUR) Flat fee, cancel anytime
G2 299 USD per month or 2,999 USD per year (about 275 and 2,759 EUR), Starter Subscription, higher tiers on request
Trustpilot 319 USD per month Plus, 799 USD Premium, per domain, billed annually Subscription, free plan of 50 invitations
OMR Reviews (DACH) 575 EUR per month Essential, pay per click from 100 EUR, sponsored content from 2,000 EUR Subscription plus add-ons
Product Hunt Free to launch, self-serve ads on a 5,000 to 10,000 USD budget, CPM capped at 35 USD Ads banned on launch day
Capterra, GetApp, Software Advice Not published Lead generation, quoted by sales
Appvizer (FR) Not published Cost per click, free listing
SourceForge Not published Tiered, and its vendor page says your exact position depends on the plan price

Converted at 1 USD = 0.92 EUR. Half of this market publishes no price, which is itself the finding: if you cannot see a number before a sales call, assume it is set by what the seller thinks you can pay.

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Outside the directories there is a thinner market for sponsored posts and link insertions. Measured prices: a survey of 755 link builders put the average paid link at 83 USD, an outreach study of 450 sites found 361.44 USD on average for inserting a link into an existing article, and 180 sites quoted 77.80 USD on average for a paid guest post. That is the going rate for something you should not buy for SEO reasons, because Google's spam policy requires paid links to carry rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored", which removes the benefit the seller implies.

What a vendor should refuse to pay for

  1. A ranking position or a score. In the EU this is also a disclosure matter: since 28 May 2022, a trader who ranks products must disclose the main parameters of the ranking, and the Digital Services Act requires an advertisement to be identifiable. A site that sells position quietly is selling you a risk.
  2. A followed link. It breaks Google's spam policy on both sides of the deal.
  3. Removal of a competitor, a weakness or a negative review. The FTC rule of August 2024 covers review suppression as well as fake reviews.
  4. Reviews, or incentives tied to sentiment. Serious platforms allow incentives only when they are not conditioned on a positive opinion.
  5. Any "get recommended by AI" guarantee. No assistant vendor publishes a selection factor, so the promise cannot be kept. The honest version is how to get recommended by AI assistants.
  6. Lead generation without a written lead definition and a cap. Pay per click and per lead are legitimate, but only with a defined lead, a monthly ceiling and the right to stop.

How to judge an offer in three questions

Is the price public? What happens to your position if you cancel, in writing? Are paid links marked as sponsored? A seller who answers all three plainly is selling advertising. One who hedges is selling influence over editorial, which is worth less than it sounds and costs more than it looks.

Our rules and current prices are on how listings work on thinking.lu and /en/get-listed. A paid plan here buys verified facts or a labelled sponsored placement, never a ranking position and never a score, and every paid link carries rel="sponsored nofollow". Thinking is published by TTA Technologies, which also builds LUXPOS, Salonify, BoxBee and DepotGest, so every page naming one carries a disclosure.

Questions and answers

Is it normal to pay for a software listing?
Paying for a badge, a lead flow or clearly labelled advertising space is normal. Paying for a position in a ranking or for a better editorial score is not, and in the EU a ranking that hides paid placement is a disclosure problem.
How much does a G2 listing cost?
A basic profile is free. G2 publishes its Starter tier at 299 USD per month or 2,999 USD per year, which is about 275 or 2,759 EUR. Professional and Enterprise pricing is quoted by sales only.
Why do so many directories hide their prices?
Because the price is negotiated against your perceived budget. The practical defence is to ask for the number in writing before any demo, and to compare it against the platforms that do publish, such as SaaSHub, G2 Starter and OMR Reviews.
Are paid links on comparison sites worth buying?
No. Google's spam policy requires paid links to carry nofollow or sponsored, so the ranking benefit the seller implies does not exist, and the transaction puts both sites at risk.

Sources

Every price and fact above was checked against these pages on the date shown.

  1. [1] SaaSHub Featured Products (99 USD per month, flat monthly fee, cancel anytime) accessed 2026-11-11
  2. [2] G2 Plans (Starter 299 USD per month or 2,999 USD per year; Professional and Enterprise pricing not published) accessed 2026-11-11
  3. [3] Trustpilot plans (Plus 319 USD per month, Premium 799 USD per month per domain billed annually, free plan with 50 review invitations) accessed 2026-11-11
  4. [4] OMR Reviews pricing (Essential 575 EUR per month, pay per click from 100 EUR per month, sponsored content from 2,000 EUR, Tool Talks from 4,000 EUR) accessed 2026-11-11
  5. [5] Product Hunt help, Ad campaigns (self-serve budget 5,000 to 10,000 USD, CPM never above 35 USD, managed campaigns from 10,000 USD, no advertising on launch day) accessed 2026-11-11
  6. [6] Capterra for Vendors (lead generation programme, no published prices) accessed 2026-11-11
  7. [7] Appvizer transparency page (banner, paid mention and cost per click, no prices published) accessed 2026-11-11
  8. [8] SourceForge for vendors (your exact position is determined by the price of your plan; plan prices not published) accessed 2026-11-11
  9. [9] Ahrefs, How much link building costs (Authority Hacker survey of 755 link builders: average paid link 83 USD; niche edits average 361.44 USD across 450 sites; paid guest posts average 77.80 USD across 180 sites) accessed 2026-11-11
  10. [10] Google Search Central, Spam policies (paid links must carry rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored) accessed 2026-11-11
  11. [11] FTC final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials, including review suppression, announced 14 August 2024 accessed 2026-11-11
  12. [12] European Commission, Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (ranking transparency and consumer review rules applicable since 28 May 2022) accessed 2026-11-11
  13. [13] Digital Services Act, Article 26 (an advertisement must be identifiable as an advertisement, advertiser named) accessed 2026-11-11
Topics vendorspricinglistingstransparency

Thinking is published by TTA Technologies in Luxembourg, which also builds LUXPOS, Salonify, BoxBee and DepotGest. Read the full disclosure policy