Why these exist
I do content. Deeply, and not all of marketing.
As a fractional head of content I own strategy, the production engine, distribution, conversion and measurement. That is a lot of ground, and it is deliberately not everything. For the parts it does not cover you need specialists, and choosing one is miserable work. These directories exist to make that faster.
What I own, and what I do not
Being clear about the second half is the point of this page. A supplier who claims the whole of marketing is either very large or not being straight with you, and I am neither.
Mine
Strategy
What to publish, for whom, and what to refuse
Content engine
The system that produces it at a real cadence
Distribution
The two or three channels most likely to work
Conversion
Turning attention into something measurable
Measurement
Leading indicators, business indicators, honestly
One person owning all five is the whole argument for a fractional head of content rather than five suppliers who never speak.
Not mine, and these directories are for it
Link acquisition
Outreach and placement is its own trade
Outbound and GTM engineering
Finding and reaching accounts one by one
Paid media
A different skill, a different feedback loop
Brand and design
Identity work, not publishing work
PR and reputation
Managing what is said about you
Web development
Building the thing the content sits on
I work alongside specialists in all of these. The directories are the research I would do anyway before recommending one, published rather than kept.
The directories
4 so far, with more to follow. Each one is built the same way and each publishes what it found rather than what its subjects would prefer.
Link building specialists
Specialists that sell link acquisition and nothing else, compared on what they charge, which tactics they run, and whether they will tell you if a placement was paid for.
Every marketplace states that placements are paid for. Not one agency does.
Open the directoryGTM and outbound specialists
Outbound and GTM engineering specialists, compared on how they charge, what they actually run, and whether you keep the domains, inboxes and build when you leave.
Most shops that run outbound for you never say who keeps the domains and inboxes. Most that build it say you do.
Open the directoryDesign subscriptions specialists
Flat-fee design subscriptions, compared on price, how many requests really run at once, who owns the files, and who does the work.
Sold as unlimited requests. Most work through them one at a time or to a cap.
Open the directoryHubSpot partners specialists
Firms whose product is the HubSpot platform, compared on price, whether they earn on the licences they recommend, who owns the build when you leave, and who actually does the work.
Most never say whether they earn on the licences they tell you to buy.
Open the directory
398 companies opened across these directories so far, 254 listed and 144 published in full with the reason they were left out.
Four questions that work on any marketing supplier
These hold whatever the discipline is, and they are the questions the sales process is designed not to reach.
What does your published price actually buy?
A headline figure is almost always a floor, and the conditions attached to it are where the real price lives. In the link building directory one supplier prices the same authority tier at $37 and $107 depending on a traffic band most buyers never think to ask about. Ask what the cheapest version excludes.
What will you not do, and what will you not promise?
A supplier that refuses nothing is describing a brochure rather than a method. The most credible companies in these directories publish their limits: one declines to guarantee outcomes on ethical grounds, another states plainly where its own guarantee stops and why.
What do I see before you spend my money?
Approval rights are the cheapest protection a buyer has and the first thing a productised process removes. Fifteen of the 38 link building specialists disclose their targets at all, and only a handful commit to doing it before the work starts rather than after.
What happens when it does not work?
Read the exclusion, not the guarantee. Cover in these directories runs from nothing at all to three years, and the interesting part is always the carve-out: one replacement guarantee measures quality at the moment you ordered, so a supplier whose standards slip afterwards owes you nothing.
In outbound the question is what you keep when you stop paying. 49 of the 101 GTM specialists here publish nothing about whether the domains, inboxes and lists leave with you.
What we will and will not do
No money changes hands, in either direction. No affiliate links, no sponsored entries, no paid placements and no fee for a better position. Outbound links carry nofollow.
Where I work with a company, the directory says so. Nobody in the link building directory is a client or a partner of mine. In the GTM directory, Frontal, ColdIQ and Arrel are; in the design subscriptions directory, Awesomic is. Each is listed first for that reason, with the disclosure on its card and page. A directory that hid that would be a referral page with a directory's furniture.
We report what companies say, not what they do. Where a directory records a company's position on something contentious, it records the company's own published words. A company that declines to address a question is recorded as silent, never as guilty of anything.
No invented ratings. No star rating, no aggregate score, and nothing scored is emitted as structured data. Third-party scores appear with a source, a count and a read date, and the low ones are not quietly dropped.
Gaps are published as gaps. Where a whole category could not be verified, the directory says so rather than filling the space. The link building directory names none, because no shop selling ecommerce link building and nothing else could be confirmed.
Everything carries a date. Prices and services in these markets move faster than the marketing around them. Assume a directory of third-party pricing is wrong after twelve months, including this one.
FAQ
About these directories
How are these directories put together?
Every fact is read off the company's own website, with the date recorded. Never from a comparison article, a roundup or another directory, because those go stale silently and repeat each other's errors. Where a company publishes no price, the entry says so rather than estimating one.Does anyone pay to be listed?
No. There are no affiliate links, no sponsored entries and no listing fees anywhere here, and outbound links carry nofollow. In the link building directory nobody listed is a client or a partner. In the GTM directory, Frontal, ColdIQ and Arrel are; in the design subscriptions directory, Awesomic is. Each is listed first in its directory, which says so on every card and page it appears on.Why publish the companies you left out?
Because it is the only part of a directory that cannot be copied without doing the work, and because it is genuinely useful. In the link building directory alone, one company ceased trading in 2022, one now serves a parked placeholder, one is serving injected spam, and one publishes a fabricated head office address. All four still appear on competing best-of lists.Do you rate or score the companies listed?
Not numerically, and nothing here is emitted as structured data. The expanded reviews carry an editorial scorecard across six dimensions, which is our read rather than an aggregate of anyone's reviews. Third-party scores from Clutch or Trustpilot are shown with a source, a count and a read date, including the unflattering ones.How often is this updated?
Each entry carries the date its facts were read. Prices and services in this market move faster than the marketing around them, so treat every figure as a starting point for your own check rather than a quote. Assume a directory of third-party pricing is wrong after twelve months.
And if content is the gap, that part is mine
Everything on this page is a supplier for something I do not do. The part I do is the content growth system itself: deciding what gets published, building the engine that produces it, picking the two or three channels worth running, and reporting what it contributed. One person owning that, without the hire.