Effortless Backlinks vs SubmitWell
This is the hardest comparison on our site to write, because SubmitWell undercuts us badly and describes their service in the same words we use for ours: manual submissions, zero automation, a detailed report at the end.
So we are not going to pretend the price difference is an illusion. $59 for 100 directories against our €179 is a real gap, and if budget is the deciding factor, this page will tell you to go with them.
Our take
SubmitWell is roughly a third of our price at every comparable tier, delivers in 6 to 7 days rather than 30, and includes screenshots and account credentials in their report. On paper they beat us on price, speed and reporting detail. The question we would ask before buying is arithmetic rather than suspicion. Their Pro plan is $99 for 200 directories, which is $0.50 per listing. Done properly, a directory submission takes 20 to 45 minutes: finding the directory, checking it is worth a listing, writing a description that is not a duplicate, choosing a category, creating an account, submitting, and following up. Ask what fraction of a minute $0.50 buys, and what has to be true for the number to work. We do not know their answer. It might be a genuinely cheaper cost base. But it is the question the price forces, and it is the one we would want answered before spending either amount.
Full disclosure: we run this site, so read everything here knowing where we stand. We keep the facts accurate and tell you below when SubmitWell is the better pick.
At a glance
| Feature | Effortless Backlinks | SubmitWell |
|---|---|---|
| Price for 100 listings | €179 | $59 |
| Cheapest plan | €79, 25 directories | $35, 50 directories |
| Largest plan | 100 directories | 200 directories |
| Price per listing | About €1.79 | About $0.30 to $0.70 |
| Submission method | 100% manual | 100% manual, stated as zero bots |
| Delivery | Spaced over 30 days for natural link growth | 6 to 7 days |
| Directory pool | 200+ vetted | Not stated |
| Report contents | Directory, DR, and proof of each submission | Submission URLs, screenshots, and credentials used |
| Money-back guarantee | See refund policy | 30 days |
| Advertised DR outcome | We do not promise a DR number | 0-10+, 0-20+, 0-30+ by plan |
Pricing comparison
| Plan | Effortless Backlinks | SubmitWell |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | €79, 25 directories | $35, 50 directories |
| Mid | €119, 50 directories | $59, 100 directories |
| Top | €179, 100 directories | $99, 200 directories |
There is no reading of this table where we are the cheaper option. They are lower at every tier and they include more directories at each one. What the table cannot show is what a listing is worth, and that is the entire argument. 200 listings on directories nobody vets is not twice as good as 100 on directories somebody did, and it can be worse: low-quality directory links were what Google's Penguin update was built to devalue. Volume and value stopped being the same thing in this category years ago.
Prices last verified April 2026.
Want someone to handle this for you? See how Effortless Backlinks takes care of directory submissions and link building so you can focus on your product.
See how Effortless Backlinks handles this for youWhere SubmitWell wins
Price, clearly and at every tier
$35, $59 and $99 against our €79, €119 and €179, with more directories included at each level. If your budget is the constraint, this is not close and we will not argue it.
Speed
6 to 7 days against our 30. We space submissions deliberately so link growth looks natural, which we think is the better approach, but if you have a launch next week their timeline is the one that fits it.
Credentials in the report
Their report includes the account credentials used for each submission, so you can log in and edit or claim the listing later. That is genuinely useful and more than we hand over.
A stated money-back guarantee
30 days, on the promise of quality manual submissions. A clear refund window is worth something, particularly if you have been burned by a cheap service before.
Where Effortless Backlinks wins
A vetted list is the product
Our 200+ directories are checked before anything is submitted, and we cap plans at 100 because that is roughly where useful directories run out for most products. A service selling 200 listings has to find 200 places willing to take them, and the back half of any such list is where the DR 5 directories live.
We do not promise you a DR number
Their plans advertise DR outcomes of 0-10+, 0-20+ and 0-30+. Nobody controls your domain rating: it depends on your existing profile, your niche, what competitors are doing, and how Ahrefs recalculates. We tell you what we will do, not what Google and Ahrefs will do afterwards, and we would treat a promised DR number as a reason for more questions rather than fewer.
Pacing that does not look like a spike
200 new backlinks appearing in a week is not a growth curve, it is an event. We space 100 listings over 30 days because that is closer to how a product genuinely accumulates links. Whether search engines penalise the spike is arguable; whether it looks natural is not.
The arithmetic is answerable
At €1.79 a listing we can tell you where the time goes, because there is enough of it in the price to do the work described in our process. At $0.50 a listing the same description has to mean something different. We are not saying it is not manual. We are saying ask what a manual submission consists of at that price.
The honest answer
If you want the maximum number of directory listings for the minimum money, buy SubmitWell. That is a real and reasonable thing to want, particularly for a side project or a first site where the budget is genuinely tight, and pretending otherwise would insult you.
What we sell is a smaller number of listings on directories we have checked, paced over a month, at a price that reflects the time each one takes. That is worth more to a product with revenue on the line than to a weekend project, and it is worth less to anyone whose main constraint is cash.
The one thing we would not do is buy on the advertised DR increase. No service controls your domain rating, and a plan sold on a DR number is describing an outcome that depends on far more than the listings you bought.
Which should you choose?
SChoose SubmitWell if:
Budget is your binding constraint, you want the largest number of listings per euro, you need delivery inside a week, or you want the account credentials so you can manage the listings yourself afterwards.
EChoose Effortless Backlinks if:
You would rather have 100 listings on directories somebody vetted than 200 on a list nobody published, you want submissions paced across a month instead of a week, and you prefer a service that tells you what it will do rather than what your domain rating will become.
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