Clutch vs UpCity vs DesignRush vs GoodFirms for Agency Visibility
Clutch, DesignRush and GoodFirms are agency directories that AI answers sometimes cite when buyers ask for the best agency for a service or a city. UpCity is no longer an option: it shut down in late November 2025. None of the three is best for every agency. Which helps you depends on which ones assistants cite for your category, whether their pages are open to AI crawlers, and how rankings and paid placements work. DesignRush and GoodFirms openly allow AI crawlers in their robots.txt. Clutch's pages sit behind bot protection that blocked our simple check, although AI answers do cite it. Test which directories appear in answers for your services, then invest in one or two properly rather than all three thinly.
How do they compare?
| Clutch | DesignRush | GoodFirms | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | B2B service providers: development, marketing, design, IT | Agencies across marketing, design and technology | Software and service firms, strong in development |
| Ranking method | Leaders Matrix: focus against ability to deliver, with a reviews score based on rating, recency and verification | Organic scores from ratings, portfolios, awards, team bios and services, per its methodology page | Published Leaders Matrix algorithm; client reviews are half of the performance axis |
| Paid placement | Sponsored listings appear above organic results with a distinct button | Paid membership offering a top-ten position in a category, per its membership page | Sponsorship available; GoodFirms states it does not affect rank |
| AI crawler access | Bot protection challenged our automated request, even for robots.txt | Explicitly allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot | Open to all crawlers apart from a few private paths |
These details come from each directory's own methodology and pricing pages and robots.txt files, which change; check them before you pay.
Which directories do AI answers cite?
Evidence is thin and varies by category. SE Ranking's 2026 study of 30,000 commercial keywords found review platforms cited in about a third of Google's AI Overviews, dominated by software review sites; Clutch was among the few service directories cited, at about 2.4% of review-platform links. For agency questions specifically, answers often cite a mix of directories, agency comparison articles and agency websites. Why AI answers so often cite directories instead of your own site is covered in why AI cites directories and marketplaces instead of your website.
The only reliable way to know for your services is to test. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode questions such as “best Shopify development agency in Chicago” or “top B2B content marketing agencies for SaaS”, and note which directories appear in the sources.
Does paying for placement help in AI answers?
Not in any documented way. Assistants read what a directory page shows, and a sponsored listing near the top of a page may be read before others, but no assistant has said it favours paid directory placements, and many list pages mix sponsored and organic entries. What an assistant can quote is the substance of your profile: reviews, services, industries, results and prices. Pay for placement only if the directory itself sends you leads; treat any AI benefit as a bonus.
What makes a directory profile useful to AI?
- Detailed, verified client reviews that name the project type, industry and results.
- A clear service focus. Directories such as Clutch and GoodFirms reward specialisation in their rankings, and assistants match specific questions to specific services.
- Portfolio items with outcomes, such as metrics, client names where allowed and dates.
- Consistent facts with your website: name, locations, team size, pricing ranges and minimum project size.
- Recency. Both Clutch and GoodFirms weight recent reviews, and assistants favour current information.
Ask every client for an honest review; never write reviews for clients or offer rewards for positive ones.
How do their review systems differ?
Reviews carry most of the weight on these sites, so it helps to know how each treats them. Clutch scores reviews on rating, recency and verification, and its methodology describes checks on reviewers' identity before publishing. GoodFirms publishes the formula it uses: star rating, the number of reviews on a log scale and the share of reviews from the last 18 months, with statistical smoothing so a firm with three perfect reviews does not outrank one with a hundred strong ones. DesignRush counts ratings among several organic ranking signals. For AI answers, the practical point is the same everywhere: several recent, detailed reviews that describe real projects give an assistant specific evidence to repeat.
What should your own website do alongside directories?
Directories work best when they point to a site that confirms the same facts. Keep a page for each specialism with the services, industries and results a directory profile claims, a case study for each major client type, a clear location and team page, and pricing ranges or minimum engagement sizes if you are willing to share them. Add Organization markup with links to your directory profiles, so search engines and assistants can connect them to your brand.
How should an agency choose?
- Test 20 to 30 buyer questions across assistants and record which directories are cited.
- Check access in each directory's robots.txt and, for yours, confirm the profile page loads without login.
- Pick one or two that appear most for your services and regions.
- Build those profiles fully before paying for anything: reviews, portfolio, services and pricing.
- Mirror the facts on your own site, so assistants find the same story everywhere, and keep a strong services page for each specialism.
- Retest quarterly and drop directories that never appear.
Why assistants recommend competitors instead of your agency is covered in why ChatGPT recommends competitors instead of your agency.
We have not measured citations across these directories ourselves. This comparison is based on their methodology, membership and pricing pages, their robots.txt files, and SE Ranking's published research.
What might this look like in practice?
Consider an illustrative 15-person Shopify agency, Cobalt Crate, listed on Clutch, DesignRush, GoodFirms and, until it closed, UpCity, with thin profiles and a paid DesignRush placement. It removed its old UpCity badge from its site. Testing 25 buyer questions showed Clutch cited in nine answers, GoodFirms in four, and DesignRush rarely. The team let the paid placement lapse, gathered eight detailed client reviews on Clutch over three months, added results-led case studies to Clutch and GoodFirms, and updated its own site's service pages to match. A retest showed Cobalt Crate named in six answers for Shopify Plus migrations, citing its Clutch reviews.
What do people ask about agency directories and AI?
Which agency directory does ChatGPT cite most?
It varies by service and region. Test your own questions; Clutch appears often for B2B services, but not everywhere.
Is a paid top-ten listing worth it for AI visibility?
There is no evidence assistants favour paid placements. Judge it on the leads the directory sends directly.
Do directory reviews need to be verified?
Clutch and GoodFirms verify reviews and weight them in rankings. Verified, detailed reviews are also more credible to readers.
Should I list on all three?
Only if you can keep every profile complete. One or two strong profiles beat three thin ones.
What happened to UpCity?
It shut down in late November 2025. upcity.com now says the site is no longer supported and points visitors to Capterra. Remove old UpCity badges and profile links from your site.
Published by The Kovmere Team · updated Sep 29, 2026 · More resources