What a #1 spot on a 'best software' list costs in 2026, and how to tell if it pays
Yorker Media Editorial · 27 October 2026 · 5 min read
A place near the top of a "best X software" list does two jobs at once. Readers who are about to choose a tool see you first, and AI assistants that read the list when they answer buyer questions see you first too. The question is what that is worth to you, and how to judge it before you spend.
What the places cost
On the Yorker Media marketplace, every ranked list on all 35 of our sites is priced the same way. You pick the list, the position and the term:
| Position | Monthly | Yearly | Once, for good |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | $149 | $1,499 | $3,699 |
| #2 | $99 | $999 | $2,499 |
| #3 | $79 | $799 | $1,999 |
| #4 | $69 | $699 | $1,699 |
| #5 | $59 | $599 | $1,499 |
A yearly plan costs about ten months of the monthly price. The one-time price for #1 equals roughly 25 months of the monthly plan, and the place then stays yours for good. A link inside a well-read article, if you would rather appear in a guide than in a ranking, is $149 a month, $1,499 a year or $3,699 once.
The product that held the place before you moves down one spot; the list stays honest about what it covers. Places go live within two business days, and you see and manage them from your account.
The four numbers that decide the return
Before you buy, write down four numbers for the list you are looking at. You can estimate them in ten minutes.
- Monthly readers of the list. On our marketplace each list shows its site's monthly visitors, and the list pages themselves show which pages people actually open. A focused list read by 1,000 buyers can beat a broad one read by 20,000 browsers.
- The share of readers who click the #1 product. Lists are scanned top-down, so the first entry gets the largest share of clicks. Use your own click-through data from any listing you already have; if you have none, start with a cautious guess and correct it after the first month.
- Your visit-to-customer rate. Use the conversion rate of your comparison-site or review traffic, not your blended rate. Visitors who arrive from a "best X" list are further along than average.
- What a customer is worth to you. First-year revenue is the safest figure; lifetime value if you trust it.
A worked example
The numbers below are an illustration, not a forecast. Replace each with your own.
- The list has 2,000 readers a month.
- 10% of them click the #1 product: 200 visits.
- 2% of those visits become customers: 4 customers a month.
- A customer is worth $300 in the first year: $1,200 a month of first-year revenue.
Against $149 a month for #1, that placement pays back several times over. Halve every assumption and it still covers its cost. Now run the same sum for #5 at $59: if #5 gets a quarter of #1's clicks, it brings about one customer a month, which is still worth $300 against $59.
The point of the exercise is not the exact result; it is to see quickly whether a list is clearly worth it, clearly not, or worth a one-month test.
What the sum does not show
Two effects do not appear in the arithmetic, and both favour the higher places.
AI assistants read the same list. Ranked lists are the page type that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers cite most often when they recommend software (summary of six 2026 studies). A place near the top of an independent list is also a place in the material those answers are built from. That value does not show up as a click on the list.
Buyers compare. A product that appears on several independent lists across different sites looks like an established choice. One placement is a test; a presence across a category is a position.
Monthly, yearly or once?
- Monthly when you are testing a list or a niche. Run it for one or two months, check the clicks and sign-ups, then decide.
- Yearly once a list has proved itself. You pay for ten months and keep twelve.
- Once, for good for evergreen categories you will sell in for years. The place is paid off after about two years of what monthly would have cost, and it never renews.
Checklist before you buy
- Is the list current, and is it a category your buyers actually search?
- Does the page get real readers (check the site's monthly visitors and the list's own topic)?
- Are the products already on it your real competitors?
- Are your pricing and features up to date on the page once you are listed?
When the answers are yes, the cheapest test is a month at #1 or #2 on the two or three lists closest to what you sell. You can search every list for your category here, add as many as you want, and pay for all of them in one checkout.
Keep reading
Why ChatGPT recommends some brands and not others: the lists AI reads
AI assistants build their software recommendations from independent best-of lists and third-party pages far more than from your own site. Here is what the 2026 research shows, and a five-step plan to get into the lists they read.
Link insertion, guest post or a ranked spot: which one to buy, and when
Three ways to appear on an independent site, three different jobs. What each one gets you, what it costs, and how to choose between them for SEO, AI visibility and sales.