Is Clutch a good place to find an SEO agency?

It can be. Clutch lists SEO among more than 2,000 service categories and publishes how it checks reviews and orders providers. Its own comparison table describes typical Clutch engagements as $10K–$500K+, so it tends to suit larger projects; smaller businesses may also want a narrower directory or a matching service.

Do these directories charge buyers?

Clutch says buyers never pay to search, read reviews, post a project or contact providers. DesignRush says its Marketplace is free for brands, and GoodFirms says it charges $0 platform fees. findseo is free for businesses. Check UpCity and Sortlist directly, as the pages we read don't state it.

Can agencies pay to rank higher?

Most of these platforms sell visibility of some kind and say it is labelled. Clutch shows sponsored listings above organic results by default but says sponsorship doesn't change a company's Clutch Rank. UpCity has Sponsored Profiles and says its Recommendability Rating can't be bought. GoodFirms says sponsored placements and PRO Verified plans are labelled and can't buy a Leader Matrix position or star rating. On findseo, Featured agencies are labelled as paid placement and paying never changes ratings or reviews.

Why doesn't findseo have pages like "[agency] reviews and alternatives"?

Those pages use an agency's name to send its searchers to competitors, usually without enough reviews to say anything useful. We'd rather show verified reviews on the agency's own profile and let you compare up to three agencies side by side.

Comparison

Clutch alternatives for finding an SEO agency

Clutch is the best-known directory of B2B service providers, and SEO is one of its many categories. If you're hiring an SEO agency, these are the other directories and matching services worth knowing, described from each platform's own public pages (checked 11 October 2026) so you can pick the one that fits how you buy.

Disclosure: findseo is one of the directories on this page, and it's run by a digital agency that may appear in its listings. We've stuck to what each platform says about itself and haven't rated them. No logos, no affiliate links.

By the findseo Editorial Team · Published 11 October 2026

At a glance

As each platform describes itself. Numbers are the platforms' own and change often.

Platform	What it covers	How listings are ordered	Reviews	What's paid
Clutchclutch.co	B2B services of all kinds: 350,000+ providers in 2,000+ categories and 157 countries¹	Default sort: Sponsored, then Premier Verified, then Verified, then everyone else by Clutch Rank (reviews, clients and experience, market presence, focus)²	Every review read by a human editor; reviewers sign in with LinkedIn, Google or a company email²	Sponsored placement and a paid Clutch Verified subscription²
The Manifestthemanifest.com	Clutch's sister site: business news, research and rankings for smaller businesses²	Shares some review data with Clutch, with different ranking formulas²	Shared in part with Clutch²	Not described on the pages we read
UpCityupcity.com	B2B service providers, 50,000+ listed; founded 2009 to help businesses choose marketing providers³	Recommendability Rating from about 40 data points (profile, services, markets, price points, reviews and more); UpCity says it can't be purchased^4,6	A reviews verification team checks reviewers are real people³	Sponsored Profiles; claimed providers' locations are checked against Google Business Profile and services against their website⁵
DesignRushdesignrush.com	Agencies in marketing, web design, branding, software and tech: 30,000+ agencies in at least 50 countries, since 2017⁷	Agency directory you can sort by expertise, reviews, rates, portfolios and clients; Marketplace introduces 2–5 verified agencies for a brief^7,9	Shown in the agency directory⁷	Only verified agencies can bid on Marketplace projects; free for brands, who are asked to copy DesignRush into agency emails^8,9
GoodFirmsgoodfirms.co	Research-led marketplace for B2B services, founded 2015¹⁰	Says Leader Matrix positions and star ratings are algorithmic and not for sale¹⁰	Says each review is tied to a real client and checked by its research team¹⁰	Sponsored placements and PRO Verified plans, labelled on listings and profiles¹⁰
Sortlistsortlist.com	Marketplace for hiring agencies and expert teams, founded 2014; network of 100,000+ providers¹¹	Matches companies with vetted providers using AI, human guidance and customer reviews, in under 48 hours¹¹	Customer reviews are part of matching¹¹	Not described on the page we read
findseo (this site)findseo.net	SEO agencies only: 781 agencies in 37 countries, each checked against its own website	Featured agencies first, always labelled as paid placement; then verified findseo rating and number of reviews. Industry, platform and price filters use only facts agencies state themselves	Reviewers confirm by email and every review is moderated before it's published. Still early: no approved reviews yet	Featured placement for agencies. Paying never changes ratings, reviews or awards

What each one is good for

Clutch

Breadth and process. Clutch covers far more than SEO and publishes a detailed methodology: reviews are structured (background, challenge, solution, results), checked by an editor, and only verified reviews count towards a provider's rank.² Its default directory order puts sponsored and verified providers first, and you can re-sort by Clutch Rank.² Its own comparison table describes typical engagements as $10K–$500K+.²

The Manifest

Clutch describes it as a sister site aimed at smaller businesses, with news, research and rankings that draw partly on the same review data.²

UpCity

Local lists with a North American focus.⁶ Claimed providers' locations are checked against their Google Business Profile, and services against their website.⁵ UpCity says its Recommendability Rating draws on public and third-party data as well as reviews, and suggests using it alongside other information rather than on its own.⁶

DesignRush

Useful if you want to be introduced rather than browse: submit a brief and an advisor introduces 2–5 verified agencies, usually within 7–10 business days.⁹ You can also browse its directory of 30,000+ agencies.⁷

GoodFirms

Positions itself around research and verification, with its own Leader Matrix, and says sponsorship buys visibility but not rankings or ratings.¹⁰ It describes its sweet spot as larger engagements.¹⁰

Sortlist

A matching marketplace started by people who ran a marketing agency, built to connect companies with vetted providers quickly.¹¹

findseo

Narrow on purpose: SEO agencies only. You can filter by industry, platform, language and minimum monthly budget, and compare up to three agencies side by side. Those facts come only from each agency's own website or its claimed profile, with the source kept. It's new, so review counts are still low; we'd rather show none than unverified ones.

How to choose a directory

Check it covers SEO specifically, not only "digital marketing". Generalist lists mix in agencies whose main work is ads or web design.
Find out how the default order works. Look for how sponsored or featured listings are labelled, and re-sort if you can.
Read how reviews are checked and whether unverified reviews count towards scores.
Decide whether you want to browse or be matched. Matching saves time but narrows your shortlist to agencies the platform picks.
Verify outside the directory. Ask for case studies with dates and analytics screenshots, speak to a current client, and never accept ranking guarantees.

Questions

Is Clutch a good place to find an SEO agency?: It can be. Clutch lists SEO among more than 2,000 service categories and publishes how it checks reviews and orders providers. Its own comparison table describes typical Clutch engagements as $10K–$500K+, so it tends to suit larger projects; smaller businesses may also want a narrower directory or a matching service.
Do these directories charge buyers?: Clutch says buyers never pay to search, read reviews, post a project or contact providers. DesignRush says its Marketplace is free for brands, and GoodFirms says it charges $0 platform fees. findseo is free for businesses. Check UpCity and Sortlist directly, as the pages we read don't state it.
Can agencies pay to rank higher?: Most of these platforms sell visibility of some kind and say it is labelled. Clutch shows sponsored listings above organic results by default but says sponsorship doesn't change a company's Clutch Rank. UpCity has Sponsored Profiles and says its Recommendability Rating can't be bought. GoodFirms says sponsored placements and PRO Verified plans are labelled and can't buy a Leader Matrix position or star rating. On findseo, Featured agencies are labelled as paid placement and paying never changes ratings or reviews.
Why doesn't findseo have pages like "[agency] reviews and alternatives"?: Those pages use an agency's name to send its searchers to competitors, usually without enough reviews to say anything useful. We'd rather show verified reviews on the agency's own profile and let you compare up to three agencies side by side.

Sources

All checked 11 October 2026. Platform names are trademarks of their owners; findseo isn't affiliated with any of them.

1.Clutch: About us (clutch.co/about-us)
2.Clutch: Research methodology (clutch.co/methodology)
3.UpCity: Who we are (upcity.com/about-upcity/)
4.UpCity: What is Recommendability? (upcity.com/experts/what-is-recommendability/)
5.UpCity: Community guidelines (upcity.com/our-community/guidelines/)
6.UpCity: Methodology (upcity.com/our-community/methodology/)
7.DesignRush: About us (www.designrush.com/about-us)
8.DesignRush: Marketplace FAQs (www.designrush.com/marketplace/faqs)
9.DesignRush: Submit a project brief (www.designrush.com/marketplace/project-brief)
10.GoodFirms: About us (www.goodfirms.co/about-us)
11.Sortlist: About us (www.sortlist.com/about)