What is pay-to-rank?
A pay-to-rank board is simple: every product on the board has a cumulative bid. Higher bid = higher rank. Anyone can pay to climb. Anyone can pay to overtake you. The board is public, the bids are public, and the rank changes happen in real time.
It is not an auction. There is no winner-takes-all moment. Bids stack over time. A product that has been on the board for months with small, consistent payments can outrank a newcomer who makes one large payment.
How is this different from a directory?
Directories list everyone equally. Pay-to-rank boards surface the products that invest in visibility. The ranking is not based on reviews, ratings, or algorithms — it is based on how much a product owner is willing to pay to be seen.
This creates a transparent market: the price of every rank is visible. You know exactly what it costs to take the #1 spot because you can see what the current #1 paid.
Why do people pay?
Because rank buys attention. A product at #1 gets more clicks than a product at #50. More clicks means more users, more revenue, more social proof. For founders who are building in public, a spot on the board is a signal: I believe in this enough to pay for it.
Entry is free, rank is paid
Every product lists FREE at $0 (bottom of board). Early "Founding 100" badges on old listings are historical markers from the launch allocation. Rank is earned by paying to climb from $5 up.
Try it
Use the rank calculator to see where any bid would land. Check the public API to build your own view of the board. Or just list your product FREE and land on the board in under a minute — pay only when you see a rank worth taking.